3663 — Muhammad ibn al-Muthanna narrated to us, Maʿādh narrated to us, my father narrated to me, from Qatādah, from Abū Ḥassān, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr, who said: The Prophet of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, would tell us about the Children of Israel until morning came, and he would not get up except for the greatest of prayers.(1)

12 — Chapter on seeking knowledge for other than Allah, Mighty and Majestic

3664 — Abū Bakr ibn Abī Shaybah narrated to us, Surayj ibn al-Nuʿmān narrated to us, Fulayḥ narrated to us, from Abū Ṭuwālah ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Maʿmar al-Anṣārī, from Saʿīd ibn Yasār—

(1) Its chain of transmission is sound. Abū Ḥassān: he is Muslim ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Aʿraj, and Maʿādh: he is Ibn Hishām ibn Abī ʿAbd Allāh al-Dastuwāʾī.
It was also recorded by Aḥmad (19922), Ibn Khuzaymah (1342), and Ibn Ḥibbān (6255) via two routes from Qatādah, with it.
It was also recorded by Aḥmad (19921), al-Bazzār in his Musnad (3596), Ibn Khuzaymah (1342), al-Ṭaḥāwī in Sharḥ Mushkil al-Āthār (137), al-Ṭabarānī in al-Kabīr 18/(510), Ibn ʿAdī in al-Kāmil 6/2221, and al-Ḥākim 2/379 via the route of Abū Hilāl al-Rāsibī, from Qatādah, from Abū Ḥassān, from ʿImrān ibn Ḥuṣayn. Thus he made it part of the Musnad of ʿImrān ibn Ḥuṣayn. And Abū Hilāl al-Rāsibī is weak in hadith.
His saying: "the greatest of prayers" — Ibn al-Athīr said: The "greatest" (ʿuẓm) of a thing is its largest part, as if he meant: he would not get up except for the obligatory prayer.
And it came in Badhl al-Majhūd 15/348–349 with the following text: Our master Muḥammad Yaḥyā, may Allah have mercy on him, wrote from the notes of his teacher, may Allah be pleased with him, regarding his saying: "he would tell us about the Children of Israel": If his sitting was before the night prayer (tahajjud), then what is meant by "the greatest of prayers" is the tahajjud; and if it was after it, then it is the dawn prayer. And it is not established that he, peace and blessings be upon him, mentioned them for an entire night such that the sitting could be taken as being from the beginning of the night. The purpose of citing the narration is his exaggeration in it, and his prolonging of their stories when they contained exhortations and matters of benefit.