Al-Haythami said in al-Majmaʿ (5/143):
“Al-Tabarani transmitted it in al-Awsat. Its chain includes Ibn Lahiʿah, whose hadith is good, though not without weakness; the rest of its narrators are trustworthy.”
I say: He may be criticized for not attributing it to Ahmad, just as al-Mundhiri may be criticized for not attributing it to al-Hakim, even though its chain of transmission is more authentic. Moreover, he declared Ibn Lahiʿah trustworthy, despite the weakness in him that al-Haythami mentioned.
Know that the hadith clearly indicates that gold and silk are forbidden, and its general wording includes women as well as men. However, hadiths have been reported showing that women are exempted from this prohibition, such as the well-known hadith:
“These two are forbidden for the males of my Ummah and permitted for its females.”
Yet this is not unrestricted in its generality. Authentic hadiths have been reported prohibiting women from wearing certain types of gold: necklaces, bracelets, and rings. Likewise, they are forbidden, just as men are, from eating and drinking from gold vessels. See the evidence in Adab al-Zifaf.
Thus, silk alone remains absolutely permitted for them, without any exception.
Yes, an exception has been made from what is permitted to them in the case of the Mothers of the Believers. It is authentically reported that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, forbade the women of his household from it, as in the following hadith:
“He would forbid the women of his household from wearing jewelry and silk, saying: ‘If you love the jewelry and silk of Paradise, then do not wear them in this world.’”
338 — “He would forbid the women of his household from wearing jewelry and silk, saying: ‘If you love the jewelry and silk of Paradise, then do not wear them in this world.’”
Al-Nasa’i (2/284), Ibn Hibban (1463), al-Hakim (4/191), and Ahmad (4/145) transmitted it through the route of Amr ibn al-Harith: Abu ʿAshanah al-Maʿafiri told him that he heard ʿUqbah ibn ʿAmir relate it.
Al-Hakim said: “Authentic according to the criteria of the two Shaykhs.”