The Messenger of Allah ﷺ used to pray the afternoon prayer while the sun was still high and bright. A person could then set off to the outlying districts of Awali and arrive there while the sun was still high.
كان رسول الله ﷺ يصلي العصر والشمس مرتفعة حية، فيذهب الذاهب إلى العوالي فيأتيهم، والشمس مرتفعة.
Bukhari, in "The Times of Prayer" (550), narrated it via Shuayb, and Muslim, in "Mosques" (621:192), via Layth and Amr, all three of them from Ibn Shihab Zuhri, from Anas, as mentioned. Malik also narrated it in "The Times of Prayer" (11) from Ibn Shihab, with the same chain, in this wording, "We used to pray Asr, then whoever among us wished to go would go to Quba, and would arrive while the sun was still high." Bukhari (551) and Muslim (621:193) narrated it via the route of Malik in this same way, saying "to Quba" instead of "to the Awali."Ibn Abdul-Barr said in Tamhid (6/178), "This is how a group of the companions of Ibn Shihab reported it from him, 'whoever wished to go would go to the Awali,' and this is what the people of hadith consider correct. Malik's wording, according to them, 'to Quba,' is undoubtedly a mistake, and no one else followed him in this regarding this hadith of Ibn Shihab. However, the meaning is close either way, given the broad span of time involved, since the Awali vary in distance, the closest of them to Madinah being about two or three miles, while others are eight or ten miles away, which is roughly comparable to the distance between Quba and Madinah. Quba is the place of Banu Amr bin Awf, and Ishaq bin Abu Talha explicitly mentioned Banu Amr bin Awf in this hadith of Anas."Ibn Hajar said in Fath al-Bari (2/29), "Perhaps Malik, seeing that Zuhri's report was general in wording, interpreted it in light of the more explicit report, namely his own earlier report from Ishaq, in which he said, 'then the person would go out to Banu Amr bin Awf,' and it has already been established that they are the people of Quba. Malik thus concluded that it was a single incident, since both narrators reported it to him from Anas and the meaning is close. This reconciliation is preferable to flatly asserting that Malik erred in it."He then quoted Ibn Rushayd Sabti as saying, "Bukhari settled the matter in Malik's favor with the best indication and the most concise expression, for he first presented the general wording and then followed it with Malik's more specific, explanatory hadith."