That is what he said! By this—Allah knows best—he meant that the text of the hadith was very singular. Yet this does not mean that it is weak, as is well known to scholars, for singularity may coexist with authenticity; al-Tirmidhi combines the two descriptions in many of his authentic hadiths. Supporting what I have said is the fact that al-Dhahabi included this hadith in his book al-Kaba'ir (p. 71, edited by Brother Mashhur) and said:

“Its chain is authentic.”

Shaykh Ahmad Shakir, may Allah have mercy on him, said likewise in his commentary on al-Musnad (10/187). The correct ruling, however, is that it is good, owing to the well-known disagreement concerning the hadith of Amr ibn Shu'ayb from his father, from his grandfather Abd Allah ibn Amr.

Points of note:

Firstly: al-Tabarani narrated the hadith in al-Mu'jam al-Awsat (7/193/6367), through Musa ibn A'yan, from Amr ibn al-Harith, with this chain. He then said:

“No one narrated it from Amr ibn al-Harith except Musa ibn A'yan.”

I say: This is according to the extent of his knowledge; otherwise, it is found in Ahmad and others through routes other than his, as was indicated earlier in the course of the documentation.

Secondly: In al-Targhib (3/189/51), al-Mundhiri attributed it only to al-Hakim. However, he said: “Ahmad also narrated part of it: ‘Whoever neglects the prayer once because of intoxication, it is as though he possessed the whole world and all that is in it, and then it was taken away from him.’ Its narrators are trustworthy.”

I say: This is one of al-Mundhiri’s errors, may Allah have mercy on him. The hadith is found in Ahmad in its entirety, as you have seen; nor did he mention it elsewhere in al-Musnad in the abridged form attributed to him by al-Mundhiri, may Allah have mercy on him.