Abdullah bin Abu Awfa reported, "I witnessed him pronounce four takbirs over a funeral. He paused for a moment, meaning to supplicate, and then said, 'Did you think I was going to pronounce five takbirs?'They replied, 'No.'He said, 'Indeed, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said that four takbirs are to be pronounced.'"
عن عبد الله بن أبي أوفى قال: شهدته، وكبر على جنازة أربعا، ثم قال ساعة يعني يدعو، ثم قال: أتروني كنت أكبر خمسا؟ قالوا: لا. قال: إن رسول الله ﷺ قال: يكبر أربعا.
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Bayhaqi narrated it (4/35) through several chains from Abu Abbas Muhammad bin Yaqub, who said, Sari bin Yahya narrated to us, he said, Qabisa narrated to us, he said, Hasan bin Salih narrated to us, from Abu Yafur, and he related it.He also narrated it through Ibrahim Hijri, from Ibn Abu Awfa, with the same meaning, except that he said, they said, "We have seen that." He said, "I would not do such a thing, for the Messenger of Allah ﷺ used to say the takbir four times, then pause as long as Allah willed." And he mentioned in it a story, that a daughter of his had died, and he was following her funeral procession on a mule behind it, and the women began to weep, so he said, "Do not wail, for the Messenger of Allah ﷺ forbade wailing over the dead. Let one of you shed her tears as much as she wishes." Then he said the takbir over her four times, then after the fourth takbir he stood for as long as the interval between two takbirs, supplicating, then he said, "The Messenger of Allah ﷺ used to do this at funerals."Imam Ahmad narrated it (19140) from Husayn bin Muhammad, who said, Shuba narrated to us, from Ibrahim Hijri, from Abdullah bin Abu Awfa, and he related it. Except that this Ibrahim is Ibrahim bin Muslim Hijri, who is daif, and this is why Dhahabi took Hakim (1/359-360) to task for saying, "This is a hadith sahih, and the two of them did not narrate it, and Ibrahim bin Muslim Hijri has not been faulted with any conclusive argument." Dhahabi said, "They have declared Ibrahim daif."This hadith was also transmitted by Ibn Majah (1503), and Busiri declared it daif in Zawaid because of Ibrahim Hijri.I say, if the story itself is not sahih, then the core of the hadith is sahih, as you have seen from the route of Abu Yafur. But this is complicated by what Tabarani said in Saghir (268), that the well known hadith narrated by Abu Yafur from Ibn Abu Awfa is his saying, "We went on seven expeditions with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, eating locusts during them." That is what he said, but it is not unlikely that Abu Yafur, who is reliable and precise, would narrate two independent hadiths from Ibn Abu Awfa, so one of them should not be weakened on account of the other. This is why Bayhaqi placed the narration of Abu Yafur first, then followed it with the narration of Ibrahim Hijri, and Dhahabi remained silent about it in Muhadhab Sunan al-Kubra (3/1380), as did Hafiz in Talkhis. Praise be to Allah for His guidance.As for what appears in his hadith as an addition, that he gave salam to his right and to his left, coming from the narration of Ibrahim Hijri, I have not found any corroborator for it, as will come in the chapter on what has been said about the two salams.