Al-Bayhaqī said, after narrating it:
“Al-Bukhārī transmitted it, saying: ‘And Hammām said ...’”
I say: It seems that its connected-chain narration escaped his notice!
I then saw Ibn al-Turkumānī point this out to him in al-Jawhar al-Naqī (5/335); so praise be to Allah.
The second route is through Abū Yūnus, the client of Abū Hurayrah:
Muslim (3/117), Ibn Ḥibbān in his Ṣaḥīḥ (3292—al-Iḥsān), and al-Bayhaqī in his Sunan (7/29) narrated it through various routes from Ibn Wahb, from ʿAmr, from him, with this wording. *
- “Shall I not tell you of the best of witnesses? He is the one who brings his testimony before it is requested of him.”
Muslim (5/132–133), Abū ʿAwānah in his Ṣaḥīḥ (4/19), al-Bukhārī in al-Tārīkh al-Kabīr (11/187), Abū Dāwūd (3596), al-Tirmidhī (2296), al-Nasāʾī in al-Kubrā (6029), Mālik (2/198), Ibn Ḥibbān (5079), Aḥmad (4/115, 116, and 117) (5/198 and 193), ʿAbd al-Razzāq (15557) (1), al-Ṭaḥāwī in Sharḥ Maʿānī al-Āthār (4/152), al-Bayhaqī (10/159), al-Baghawī (10/138), Abū Nuʿaym in al-Ḥilyah (6/347), and al-Ṭabarānī in al-Kabīr (5182, 5183, and 5184) narrated it through various routes from ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr ibn ʿUthmān, from Ibn Abī ʿAmrah—the Anṣārī; in some sources, Abū ʿAmrah—from Zayd ibn Khālid al-Juhanī, that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said it; then he mentioned it.