I set out with my father toward the Prophet ﷺ, and there he was with thick hair stained with henna, wearing two green cloaks.
انطلقت مع أبي نحو النبي ﷺ فإذا هو ذو وفرة، بها درع من حناء، وعليه بردان أخضران.
Abu Dawud (4206) narrated it, and the wording is his, as did Tirmidhi (2812), Nasai (1572), and Ahmad (7109). Ibn Hibban (5995) and Hakim (2/425) graded it sahih. All of them narrated it through the route of Ubaydullah bin Iyad bin Laqeet, who said, Iyad bin Laqeet narrated to me, from Abu Rimtha, who said, and he then mentioned it.Tirmidhi said, this is a hasan gharib hadith, we do not know it except through the narration of Ubaydullah bin Iyad. That is what he said, but Ubaydullah bin Iyad did not narrate it alone. Rather, a group narrated it, among them Abdul-Malik bin Abjar, with Imam Ahmad (17492) and Nasai (4832), Sufyan Thawri, also with Ahmad (7104), and Ali bin Salih, also with Ahmad (7112).Abu Dawud (4208) and Nasai (5083) also narrated it through another route from Iyad bin Laqeet, from Abu Rimtha, with the same wording, and it contains that he said, and he had smeared, meaning the Prophet ﷺ, his beard with henna. Its chain is sahih.In some routes of this hadith the wording appears, "he had hair that had been overtaken by grayness, or graying," but this is defective. Tirmidhi narrated it in Shamail (42), and its wording contradicts what is established in the Sahihayn, that he saw no more than a little grayness on the Prophet ﷺ, and Allah the Exalted caused him to die with fewer than twenty white hairs on his head and beard. Imam Tirmidhi declared it defective for this reason, saying, the sahih narrations are that the graying had not reached that extent.Something with a similar meaning was narrated from Juhadhma, the wife of Bashir bin Khassasiya, who said, "I saw the Messenger of Allah ﷺ coming out of his house shaking his head, having bathed, with a trace of henna on his head," or she said, "a smear," the shaykh being uncertain about this. Tirmidhi narrated it in Shamail (46) from Ibrahim bin Harun, who said, Nadr bin Zurara informed us, from Abu Janab, from Iyad bin Laqeet, from Juhadhma, and he then mentioned it. Its chain is daif, containing Nadr bin Zurara, about whom the Hafiz said, "of unknown status," and containing Abu Janab, whose name is Yahya bin Abu Hayya, who is a mudallis and narrated this with an ambiguous form of transmission (an).