- "The seven heavens in comparison to the Kursī are like a ring thrown in a vast desert, and the superiority of the Throne over the Kursī is like the superiority of that desert over that ring." Narrated by Muḥammad ibn Abī Shaybah in "Kitāb al-ʿArsh" (114/1): Ḥasan ibn Abī Laylá narrated to us, Aḥmad ibn ʿAlī al-Asadī informed us from al-Mukhtār ibn Ghassān al-ʿAbdī from Ismāʿīl ibn Salm from Abū Idrīs al-Khawlānī from Abū Dharr al-Ghifārī who said: "I entered the Sacred Mosque and saw the Messenger of Allāh (ṣallá Allāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam) alone, so I sat with him and said: O Messenger of Allāh, which verse was revealed to you as the most superior? He said: Āyat al-Kursī: 'The seven heavens...'" the ḥadīth. I said: And this chain is weak, Ismāʿīl ibn Salm is unknown to me, and it is most likely that he is Ismāʿīl ibn Muslim, as he was mentioned among the teachers of al-Mukhtār ibn ʿUbayd, and he is the Makkan Basran who is weak. And al-Mukhtār was narrated from by three people, but none authenticated him, and in "al-Taqrīb": he is deemed acceptable. I said: And Ismāʿīl ibn Muslim was not alone in narrating it, but was followed by Yaḥyá ibn Yaḥyá al-Ghassānī, narrated by his grandson Ibrāhīm ibn Hishām ibn Yaḥyá ibn Yaḥyá al-Ghassānī who said: My father narrated to us from my grandfather from Abū Idrīs al-Khawlānī with it