It is narrated from Sayyiduna Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) that he said: "Our Lord gathered for Nuh (peace be upon him) the knowledge of all those who had passed before him, and supported him with a spirit from Himself. So he called his people secretly and openly for nine hundred and fifty years. Whenever one generation passed, another generation followed it, and their disbelief and rebellion only increased." The chain of this hadith is sahih (authentic), but the two Shaykhs did not record it.