So I would thrust it into his mouth, fearing that mercy might reach him." (1)

This is a good (ḥasan) hadith.

3367 — Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā al-Ṣanʿānī narrated to us, saying: Khālid ibn al-Ḥārith narrated to us, saying: Shuʿbah narrated to us, saying: ʿAdī ibn Thābit and ʿAṭāʾ ibn al-Sāʾib informed me, from Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, from Ibn ʿAbbās — one of the two mentioned it — from the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, that he mentioned that Gabriel kept thrusting mud into the mouth of Pharaoh, fearing that he would say "There is no god but Allah," and Allah would have mercy on him — or fearing that He would have mercy on him." (2)

This is a good, authentic (ḥasan ṣaḥīḥ) hadith, strange (gharīb) from this chain.

‌‌12 — And from Sūrat Hūd

3368 — Aḥmad ibn Manīʿ narrated to us, saying: Yazīd ibn Hārūn narrated to us, saying: Ḥammād ibn Salamah informed us, from Yaʿlā ibn ʿAṭāʾ, from Wakīʿ ibn Ḥudus, from his paternal uncle Abū Razīn, who said: I said: O Messenger of Allah, where was our Lord before He created His creation? He said: "He was in a cloud (ʿamāʾ) with no air beneath it and no--------------------------------------------
(1) Authentic (ṣaḥīḥ) as a statement stopped at Ibn ʿAbbās (mawqūf), and this chain is weak due to the weakness of ʿAlī ibn Zayd, who is Ibn Judʿān. It is found in al-Musnad (2203).
His saying "the state of the sea" (ḥāl al-baḥr) means its mud.

(2) Authentic (ṣaḥīḥ) as a statement stopped at Ibn ʿAbbās (mawqūf), and al-Nasāʾī recorded it in al-Kubrā (11238). It is found in al-Musnad (2144) and Ṣaḥīḥ Ibn Ḥibbān (6215).