The Prophet ﷺ said regarding the verse "and We make some of them excel others in taste" [Rad 13:4], "This refers to low-grade dates, Persian dates, the sweet, and the sour."
عن النبي ﷺ في قوله: {ونفضل بعضها على بعض في الاكل}. قال: الدقل، والفارسي، والحلو، والحامض.
Ibn Jareer narrated it in his Tafsir (13/431), Aqeeli in his Duafa (2/131), and Ibn Adi in Kamil (3/1270), all of them through the route of Sulayman bin Ubaydullah Raqqi, who said, "Ubaydullah bin Amr Raqqi narrated to us, from Zayd bin Abu Unaysa, from Amash, from Abu Salih, from Abu Hurairah," and he related it.Its chain is hasan because of Sulayman bin Ubaydullah Raqqi, for he is hasan in hadith. But Ibn Abu Hatim asked his father about the aforementioned route of Sulayman bin Ubaydullah Raqqi, and he said, "Sulayman narrated this hadith while I was in Kufa, but I was not able to hear it from him. Then he retracted it and said, 'Sayf bin Muhammad, the son of Sufyan's sister and brother of Ammar, narrated it to us,' and he is daif in hadith." End of quote. Ilal Hadith (1733).I say, Tirmidhi narrated it (3118) from Mahmud bin Khidash Baghdadi, who said, "Sayf bin Muhammad Thawri narrated to us, from Amash," with the same wording. He said, "This hadith is hasan gharib, and Zayd bin Abu Unaysa narrated it from Amash in a similar manner. Sayf bin Muhammad is the brother of Ammar bin Muhammad, and Ammar is more reliable than him, and he is the son of Sufyan Thawri's sister." End of quote.If what Tirmidhi said is correct, then Zayd bin Abu Unaysa would be corroborating Sayf bin Muhammad, who is very daif, indeed they accused him of lying.But Daraqutni said in Afrad, after relating it through the route of Sayf, from Zayd bin Abu Unaysa, from Amash, "Mahmud bin Khidash narrated it uniquely, from Sayf bin Muhammad, from Zayd bin Abu Unaysa, from Amash, from him."So the conclusion regarding this is that Mahmud bin Khidash's report contains confusion. If Sulayman bin Ubaydullah Raqqi's retraction is confirmed, then perhaps he had been narrating in Kufa from Ubaydullah bin Amr Raqqi, and its chain is hasan as I said. Then he began narrating from Sayf bin Muhammad, and Abu Hatim described this as a retraction. As for Mahmud bin Khidash, although Ibn Main deemed him trustworthy, he would sometimes err.His saying "daqal" refers to the inferior, dried type of dates. And his saying "Farsi" is a type of dates.