he said: For trade? I replied: No, but I intended to pray there. He said: and he mentioned it, and the context is for al-Ṭaḥāwī, with additions from others, and their wording is: "A prayer here is better than a thousand prayers there." Al-Haythamī mentioned it in "al-Majmaʿ" (4/5) with the wording: "So the prayer here"—and he gestured towards Mecca—"is better than a thousand prayers"—and he gestured with his hand towards al-Shām—". Al-Haythamī said: "It was narrated by Aḥmad, and al-Ṭabarānī in "al-Kabīr" said:..". I said: He quoted the wording of al-Ṭabarānī mentioned earlier, and it does not include the gesture attributed to Aḥmad's narration. I have searched extensively in "his Musnad," and I have used all the indexes available for "the Musnad" known today but did not find it. I assumed that he mentioned it—due to its relevance in other than the Musnad of his Companion (al-Arqam), so I reviewed all the ḥadīths on the virtue of prayer in his mosque (ṣallá Allāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam) in the Musnads of the Companions who narrated them, such as Abū Hurayrah, Ibn ʿUmar, and others, but I did not find it. It is possible that it is in some copies of "the Musnad." I have heard from some of our brothers engaged in this noble science that he found an unpublished piece of it, so perhaps the ḥadīth is there. If found, it is most likely from the route of this ʿAṭāf. Then my assumption was confirmed, as my brother ʿAlī al-Ḥalabī—may Allāh reward him—told me over the phone that the ḥadīth was mentioned by al-Ḥāfiẓ Ibn Ḥajar in "Aṭrāf al-Musnad" (1/48/84—verified by brother Samīr): ʿIṣām ibn Khālid narrated to us from al-ʿAṭāf ibn Khālid from Yaḥyá ibn ʿImrān from