وَحَدَّثَنِي حَجَّاجُ بْنُ الشَّاعِرِ، حَدَّثَنَا أَحْمَدُ - يَعْنِي ابْنَ يُونُسَ - حَدَّثَنَا زَائِدَةُ، عَنِ الْأَعْمَشِ، عَنْ إِبْرَاهِيمَ، أَنَّ الْحَارِثَ قَالَ: تَعَلَّمْتُ الْقُرْآنَ فِي ثَلَاثِ سِنِينَ وَالْوَحْيَ فِي سَنَتَيْنِ، أَوْ قَالَ: الْوَحْيَ فِي ثَلَاثِ سِنِينَ وَالْقُرْآنَ فِي سَنَتَيْنِ.
Translation: Through Ḥajjāj b. al-Shāʿir, Aḥmad b. Yūnus, Zāʾidah, al-Aʿmash and Ibrāhīm, al-Ḥārith is reported to have said: I learned the Qurʾān in three years and waḥy in two; or the transmitter expressed doubt and reversed the periods.
«أَوْ قَالَ» preserves the transmitter’s uncertainty between two wordings. It would be inaccurate to silently choose one chronological order as certain.
The earlier report records al-Ḥārith replying to ʿAlqamah; this report attributes a duration to al-Ḥārith himself. Their topic overlaps, but wording and setting differ. One cannot automatically reconstruct a single detailed event from both.