Note / Clarification: (5) Manuscript (B) has "Ahmad al-Thaqafi" (with the addition of the name "Ahmad"), and manuscript (Z) also had it so, but it was then erased. This is an intrusive addition. The correct reading is what is in manuscripts (S) and (M), because the al-Thaqafi mentioned is "Muhammad bin Ishaq Abu al-'Abbas al-Sarraj", so his name is Muhammad, not Ahmad.

Grading: (1) Its narrators are trustworthy (thiqah), but it is "mursal", because Yahya bin Sa'id (al-Ansari) did not live in the time of 'Umar bin al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him).
Note / Clarification: "Qutaybah" refers to Ibn Sa'id al-Balkhi, and "al-Layth" refers to Ibn Sa'd al-Misri.

Reference / Source: Abu Nu'aym recorded it in "Ma'rifat al-Sahabah" (1057), and Ibn 'Asakir (10/ 472-473), through two routes from Qutaybah bin Sa'id, with this chain.

Grading: It is authentically established from Bilal (may Allah be pleased with him) as his own statement, as Ibn 'Asakir (10/ 475) recorded from the narration of Abu Hisham Muhammad bin Yazid al-Rifa'i, from Muhammad bin Fudayl, from Isma'il bin Abi Khalid, from Qays bin Abi Hazim, who said: It reached Bilal that some people were ranking him above Abu Bakr, so he said: "How can you rank me above him, when I am only one of his good deeds?"
Technical note / Defect ('illah): Ibn al-Madini mentioned that Qays did not meet Bilal, but al-'Ala'i said in reply to him: "This is open to question, for Qays was not a mudallis, and he came to Madinah right after the death of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), when the Companions were gathered there; so when he narrates from one of them, the apparent case is that he heard from him."
Important point: We (the editors) say: But Abu Hisham al-Rifa'i is alone in narrating it with this chain, and he is a disputed narrator; the hadith of someone like him is accepted in corroborations and supporting reports. A supporting report for his narration exists in the "mursal" narration of 'Amir al-Sha'bi in al-Baladhuri's "Ansab al-Ashraf" (1/ 190), whose narrators are trustworthy. So this report is "hasan" by the two routes taken together, in sha' Allah.