The four familiar patterns of relative elevation are muwāfaqah, badal, musāwāh and muṣāfaḥah. Their distinction depends on the reference point in the chain rather than a vague preference for fewer narrators.
Muwāfaqah: reaching a compiler’s own teacher by an alternative route, with relative numerical elevation.
Badal: reaching that compiler’s teacher’s teacher by an alternative route with suitable elevation.
Musāwāh: matching the number of links from oneself to the Prophet in a selected chain of a compiler, not necessarily through identical narrators.
Muṣāfaḥah: numerical correspondence to the position of the compiler’s pupil, one additional generation relative to the compiler’s chain.
The example involving Qutaybah and Abū al-ʿAbbās al-Sarrāj requires identifying the precise teacher at which the chains converge. That distinguishes muwāfaqah from badal.