This is a good and strange hadith.(1)

40 — Qutaybah narrated to us, saying: Ibn Lahi‘ah narrated to us, from Yazid ibn ‘Amr, from Abu ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Hubuli, from al-Mustawrid ibn Shaddad al-Fihri, who said: I saw the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, when he performed ablution, rubbing his toes with his little finger.(2)

This is a strange hadith,(3) and we do not know it except from the narration of Ibn Lahi‘ah.(4)

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(1) Ibn Sayyid al-Nas, folio 12/1, reported that al-Tirmidhi said in his book "al-‘Ilal": I asked Muhammad about this hadith, and he said: It is a good hadith, and Musa ibn ‘Uqbah heard from Salih, the freed slave of al-Taw’amah, at an early time. This text appears in a completion of his words that is missing from the printed edition of "al-‘Ilal" edited by Hamzah Dib Mustafa.
(2) In copies (Z) and (S): "khallala" (he intercalated).
(3) Sound due to corroborating evidence, and this chain is good, for Qutaybah’s — that is, Ibn Sa‘id’s — narration from Ibn Lahi‘ah — that is, ‘Abdullah — is strong among the people of knowledge. ‘Abdullah ibn Wahb followed him in narrating it, as found in al-Tahawi 1/36, and ‘Abd al-Rahman ibn Yazid al-Muqri’ followed him as well, as found in al-Tabarani’s "al-Kabir" 20/(728). Both of them, like Qutaybah, had sound hearing from Ibn Lahi‘ah. It was also recorded by Abu Dawud (148) and Ibn Majah (446), and it is in "al-Musnad" (18010).
(4) In a copy on the margin of (1) and (S): "good and strange."
(5) Ibn Sayyid al-Nas said, folio 12/1: As for the hadith of al-Mustawrid ibn Shaddad, he said of it: good and strange. It appears that by "strangeness" he refers to Ibn Lahi‘ah’s sole narration of it from Yazid ibn ‘Amr, and through his chain the group, al-Bazzar, ‘Abd al-Baqi ibn Qani‘, and others narrated it. It is also through Ibn Lahi‘ah that it became good. If that is the case, then it is neither strange nor good, for it was narrated by =