al-Awsaṭ (7/222/6430), Abū Nuʿaym in al-Ḥilyah (8/320), and al-Aṣbahānī in al-Targhīb (2/726/1766), through Idrīs ibn Yaḥyā al-Khawlānī, who said: ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAyyāsh ibn ʿAbbās al-Qitbānī narrated to me, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Sulaymān al-Ṭawīl, from Nāfiʿ, from Ibn ʿUmar, who said: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said: … and he mentioned it.

Al-Ṭabarānī and Abū Nuʿaym said:

“Idrīs ibn Yaḥyā was alone in narrating it.”

I say: He is trustworthy. Ibn Abī Ḥātim said of him:

“Truthful. Abū Zurʿah said: ‘A righteous man, among the finest of the Muslims.’”

Ibn Ḥibbān included him in al-Thiqāt and said (8/133):

“His hadith are sound.”

All the remaining narrators are known and trustworthy, and are among the narrators treated in al-Tahdhīb, except ʿAbd Allāh ibn Sulaymān al-Ṭawīl. Al-Bukhārī and Ibn Abī Ḥātim included his biography on the basis of reports from a number of trustworthy narrators—including al-Layth ibn Saʿd—and Ibn Ḥibbān included him in al-Thiqāt (7/41). Thus, the chain of transmission is good.

As for what Ibn Abī Ḥātim related in al-ʿIlal (1/243–244/712)—that he asked his father about this hadith, and he replied:

“This is a rejected hadith!”

—I do not know the basis for this, especially since it has a corroborating report from Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī, attributed to the Prophet, with the wording:

“The pre-dawn meal is a meal of blessing, so do not abandon it, even if one of you merely takes a sip of water; for Allah and His angels invoke blessings upon those who partake of the pre-dawn meal.”