I came upon Huzaifa bin Yaman while he was narrating about the night Muhammad ﷺ was taken on the journey. He was saying, "Then I set off, or we set off, until we came to Bayt al-Maqdis. The two of them did not enter it."I said, "Rather, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ entered it that night and prayed inside it."He said, "What is your name, bald one? I recognize your face but do not know your name."I said, "I am Zirr bin Hubaysh."He said, "And what is your basis for claiming that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ prayed in it that night?"I said, "The Quran informs me of that."He said, "Whoever speaks with the Quran prevails. Recite."So I recited, "Glory be to the One who took His servant by night from the Sacred Mosque" [Isra 17:1].He said, "I do not find that he prayed in it. Bald one, do you find that he prayed in it?"I said, "No."He said, "By Allah, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ did not pray in it that night. Had he prayed in it, prayer there would have been prescribed for you just as prayer at the Ancient House was prescribed for you. By Allah, the two of them did not part from Buraq until the gates of heaven were opened for them, and they saw Paradise and the Fire and all that is promised in the Hereafter, then they returned the way they had come."Then he laughed until I saw his back teeth, and said, "They claim that he tied it up. Was it going to flee from him? It had been placed under his control by the Knower of the unseen and the seen."I said, "Abu Abdullah, what kind of creature is Buraq?"He said, "A white animal, tall, its stride reaching as far as the eye can see."
أتيت على حذيفة بن اليمان وهو يحدث عن ليلة أسري بمحمد ﷺ، وهو يقول: فانطلقت- أو انطلقنا- حتى أتينا على بيت المقدس. فلم يدخلاه، قال: قلت بل دخله رسول الله ﷺ ليلتئذ وصلى فيه. قال: ما اسمك يا أصلع فإني أعرف وجهك ولا أدري ما اسمك؟ قال: قلت: أنا زر بن حبيش. قال: فما علمك بأن رسول الله ﷺ صلى فيه ليلتئذ؟ قال: قلت: القرآن يخبرني بذلك. قال: من تكلم بالقرآن فلج، اقرأ. قال: فقرأت: {سبحان الذي أسرى بعبده ليلا من المسجد الحرام} [الإسراء: ١] قال: فلم أجده صلى فيه. قال: يا أصلع، هل تجد صلى فيه؟ قال: قلت: لا. قال والله ما صلى فيه رسول الله ﷺ ليلتئذ، لو صلى فيه لكتب عليكم صلاة فيه كما كتب عليكم صلاة في البيت العتيق، والله ما زايلا البراق حتى فتحت لهما أبواب السماء فرأيا الجنة والنار ووعد الآخرة أجمع، ثم عادا عودهما على بدئهما. قال: ثم ضحك حتى رأيت نواجذه. قال: ويحدثون أنه ربطه، أليفر منه؟ وإنما سخره له عالم الغيب والشهادة. قال: قلت: أبا عبد الله أي دابة البراق؟ قال: دابة أبيض طويل هكذا خطوه مد البصر.
Tirmidhi (3147) narrated it from Ibn Abu Umar, who said, Sufyan narrated to us, from Masaar, from Asim bin Abu Najud, from Zirr bin Hubaysh, who said (then he related the hadith). Imam Ahmad also narrated it (23285), and Ibn Hibban (45) and Hakim (2/359) graded it sahih, all of them through chains going back to Asim bin Abu Najud. Hakim said, "Its chain is sahih, though the two of them [Bukhari and Muslim] did not include it."I say, it is hasan because of Asim bin Abu Najud, for his hadith is hasan. As for Huzaifa's denial that the Prophet ﷺ prayed in Bayt al-Maqdis, this was based on his own personal judgment. Otherwise, it has been established in the hadith of Ibn Masud, Anas, Abu Hurairah, and others that he did pray there, and the one who affirms takes precedence over the one who denies.As for his statement, "If the Messenger of Allah ﷺ had prayed there, it would have been obligatory upon his nation to go to that place and pray there just as he ﷺ did," this is something for which Huzaifa has no valid argument, since the Messenger of Allah ﷺ would visit certain places and pray in them, yet we were not commanded to visit those places or to pray in them.For more, see Mushkil Athar (12/544) by Tahawi.