It was recorded by Aḥmad (2/72) - and the context is his - and by Ibn Abī ʿĀṣim in "al-Sunnah" (1/240/546), and also by Ibn Khuzaymah through various chains from Ḥammād ibn Salamah from him. Its chain of transmission is authentic according to the criteria of Muslim. The ḥadīth was mentioned by Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah in "al-Fatāwá" (5/481) with an addition of some of the beautiful names [of Allāh] in it, and his saying: "I am the one who began the world when it was nothing, I am the one who will recreate it." And he said: "It was narrated by Ibn Mandah, Ibn Khuzaymah, ʿUthmān ibn Saʿīd al-Dārimī, Saʿīd ibn Manṣūr, and others among the eminent, critical, and discerning scholars." I did not find mention of this addition in any of the earlier sources, and Allāh, the Exalted, knows best.

- (It is not appropriate for a two-faced person to be trustworthy). It was recorded by al-Bukhārī in "al-Adab al-Mufrad" (313): Khālid ibn Makhlad narrated to us, saying: Sulaimān ibn Bilāl narrated from ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Sulaymān from his father from Abū Hurayrah (raḍiya Allāhu ʿanhu) from the Prophet (ṣallá Allāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam) who said: ... and he mentioned it. I say: This chain of transmission is authentic; its narrators are trustworthy and are the narrators of the two Shaykhs, except for ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Sulaymān - who is al-Agharr - as he is among the narrators of al-Bukhārī. Khālid ibn Makhlad has some rejected narrations, as Aḥmad and others have said, and he was contradicted in his chain by someone more reliable than him, as al-Kharāʾiṭī said in "Masāwī al-Akhlāq" (138/292): Aḥmad narrated to us