I said to Ata, "Did you hear Ibn Abbas say, 'You were only commanded to perform tawaf around the House, you were not commanded to enter it'?"He replied, "He did not forbid entering it, but I heard him say, 'Usama bin Zayd informed me that when the Prophet ﷺ entered the House, he supplicated in all of its sides but did not pray inside it until he came out. When he came out, he prayed two rakahs facing the House and said, "This is the qiblah."'"I asked him, "What do you mean by its sides? Was it in its corners?"He answered, "Rather, in each direction of the House."
قلت لعطاء: أسمعت ابن عباس يقول: إنما أمرتم بالطواف، ولم تؤمروا بدخوله. قال: لم يكن ينهى عن دخوله، ولكني سمعته يقول: أخبرني أسامة بن زيد: أن النبي ﷺ لما دخل البيت دعا في نواحيه كلها. ولم يصل فيه، حتى خرج. فلما خرج ركع في قبل البيت ركعتين. وقال: هذه القبلة قلت له: ما نواحيها؟ أفي زواياها؟ قال: بل في كل قبلة من البيت.
Muslim narrated it in the book of Hajj (1330) from Ishaq bin Ibrahim and Abd bin Humayd, both from Muhammad bin Bakr, who reported that Ibn Jurayj informed them, and he related it in the same manner. He also narrated it through another route from Hammam, from Ataa, with the same wording, and in it, the Prophet ﷺ entered the Kaaba, which had six pillars, and he stood by a pillar and supplicated but did not pray.The scholars reconciled the hadith of Ibn Umar with the hadith of Ibn Abbas by saying that the Prophet ﷺ entered the House twice, praying in one instance and not praying in the other. The great scholars of hadith said, the correct account is that of Bilal, because he affirmed and witnessed the Prophet's ﷺ prayer, unlike Ibn Abbas, who was not present at that occasion and only related the denial from Usama bin Zayd. It is possible that he erred in attributing this statement to him. Either he was mistaken in attributing the denial to Usama, or he was correct in attributing it to him, in which case Usama bin Zayd may have been occupied with supplication in one part of the Kaaba while the Prophet ﷺ prayed in another part, and Usama did not see him due to the intense darkness after the door had been closed.Muhibb Tabari said, it is possible that Usama had left the Prophet's ﷺ presence after entering, for some need, and thus did not witness his prayer. Qira li-Qasid Umm al-Qura (p. 501).Ibn Hajar said, this is supported by what Abu Dawud Tayalisi narrated in his Musnad from Ibn Abu Dhib, from Abdul-Rahman bin Mihran, from Umayr, the freedman of Ibn Abbas, from Usama, who said, "I entered upon the Messenger of Allah ﷺ in the Kaaba, and he saw some images, so he called for a bucket of water, and I brought it to him, and he struck the images with it." Its chain of transmission is good (jayyid). Fath al-Bari (3/468).Tabari said, this indicates that Usama used to go out to fetch water, and this took place on the day of the Conquest (of Makkah). For further reading, see Minna Kubra (4/347).