was praying while I lay crosswise in front of him. He also invoked the report of Ibn Abbas: “I once passed in front of the Messenger of Allah while riding a she-ass. I asked my father, ‘If a black dog passes in front of someone who is praying, does it break his prayer?’ He said, ‘Yes.’ I then asked, ‘Must he repeat the prayer?’ He replied, ‘Yes—if it is black.’ ” The second account is that of Ishaq ibn Mansur al-Marwazi in his Masaʾil, related from both Ahmad and Ishaq. He says: “I asked—meaning Ahmad—‘What invalidates the prayer?’ He answered, ‘Nothing invalidates it except the black dog—I have no doubt about that—though I am uncertain about the donkey and the woman.’ Ishaq said, ‘Only the black dog invalidates it.’ Ahmad added, ‘Some people claim that Aishah’s words, “I used to sleep in front of the Prophet…,” are no proof against this hadith—that is, the hadith which says that a woman, a donkey, and a dog cut the prayer—because someone who is lying down is not the same as someone who passes in front of the worshipper. Likewise, Ibn Abbas’s statement about the donkey that walked in front of part of a row is not proof, for the imam’s sutrah (barrier) serves as a sutrah for those praying behind him.’ ” I add: The Ibn Abbas narration just mentioned is reported by the six canonical compilers and others with the wording: “I came riding a she-ass when I had almost reached puberty, and the Messenger of Allah was leading the people in prayer at Mina with no wall in front of him. I passed in front of part of the row, dismounted, left the she-ass to graze, and joined the row, and no one objected to that.” As Ahmad observed, this narration carries no weight in the discussion, because the she-ass did not pass directly in front of the Prophet himself. Ibn Abd al-Barr likewise remarked—see Fath, 1/454—… (Shaykh al-Albani declared the clause “with no wall in front of him” to be anomalous in al-Daʿifah, no. 5814.)