There are four hadiths in Sahih Al Bukhari that show differing numbers as to how many wives The Prophet Sulaymaan ʿalayhi-salām had.
Narrated Abu Huraira: Allah’s Prophet Sulaymaan who had sixty wives, once said, “Tonight I will have sexual relation (sleep) with all my wives so that each of them will become pregnant and bring forth (a boy who will grow into) a cavalier and will fight in Allah’s Cause.” (Bukhari 7469)
Narrated Abu Huraira: The Prophet (ﷺ) said, “Sulaymaan (the son of) David said, ‘Tonight I will sleep with seventy ladies each of whom will conceive a child who will be a knight fighting for “Allah’s Cause.’ (Bukhari 3424)
Narrated Abu Huraira: Allah’s Messenger (ﷺ) said, “(The Prophet) Solomon once said, ‘Tonight I will sleep with ninety women, each of whom will bring forth a (would-be) cavalier who will fight in Allah’s Cause.” (Bukhari 6639)
Narrated Abu Huraira: (The Prophet) Sulaymaan son of (the Prophet) David said, “Tonight I will go round (i.e. have sexual relations with) one hundred women (my wives) everyone of whom will deliver a male child who will fight in Allah’s Cause.” (Bukhari 5424)
Ibn Hajar reconciles these narrations
Translation: The total of the narrations is sixty, seventy, ninety, ninety-nine, and one hundred. The reconciliation between them is that the sixty were free women, and those beyond that were concubines—or the opposite.
As for the seventy, it is for exaggeration (this is common in the arabic language).
As for the ninety and the hundred, they were less than one hundred and more than ninety. So the one who said ninety discarded the fraction, and the one who said one hundred rounded it up. And that is why there is uncertainty in the narration of Jaʿfar.
As for the statement of some commentators: that mentioning a small number does not negate a larger number, and that this is from the implied meaning of numbers (mafhum al-ʿadad), which is not considered a proof according to the majority—that is not sufficient in this case. This is because the implied meaning of numbers is taken into account according to many, and Allah knows best.
Fath Al Bari by Ibn Hajar (10/194)
