It is narrated from Sa'id bin Jubayr that Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Umar (may Allah be pleased with them both) used to ask: "Has the red star (Venus) risen yet?" When he saw it, he would say: "May there be no welcome for it." Then he would say: "Two angels among the angels, Harut and Marut, asked Allah Almighty to be sent down to the earth, so they were sent down to the earth. They used to judge between the people, and when evening came they would recite certain words and ascend by them to the heaven. Then, as a trial for them, a woman who was among the most beautiful of people was destined for them, and desire was cast into them, but they kept putting it off. Then when the desire became settled in their hearts, they kept on at it until she fixed an appointed time with them. When she came to them at the appointed time, she said: 'Teach me the word by which you ascend to the heaven.' So they taught her the word. She recited it and ascended by it to the heaven; then she was transformed and made into what you see (a star). Then when evening came for the two (angels) and they recited the word by which they used to ascend to the heaven, they could not ascend. So this message was sent to them: 'If you wish, choose the punishment of the Hereafter, and if you wish, choose the punishment of this world until the Hour is established, and then you will meet Allah Almighty; if He wills, He will punish you, and if He wills, He will have mercy on you.' One of them looked at his companion and said: 'Rather, we choose the punishment of this world, a million times over.' So they are being punished until the Hour is established." This hadith is sahih (authentic) in its chain of narration, but the two Shaykhs (Bukhari and Muslim) did not record it. And abandoning the hadith of Yahya bin Salamah from his father is among the absurdities that reason rejects! For there is no disagreement that he was one of the experts of the craft (of hadith), so it cannot be objected that his father singled him out with some hadiths which he alone narrates from him.