The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) as saying: When one of you gets up at night, he should begin the prayer with two short rak'ahs.
Sunan Abi Dawud Book 5, Hadith 74
← Previous Hadith They (the people) used to pray between the Maghrib and 'Isha. The version of Yahya adds: The verse tatajafa junubuhum also means so.

Sunan Abi Dawud Book 5, Hadith 73 Next Hadith → He should then prolong it afterwards as much as he likes.

Abu Dawud said: This tradition has been transmitted by Hammad b. Salamah, Zuhair b. Mu'awiyah and a group of narrators from Hisham. They transmitted it as a statement of Abu Hurairah himself (mauquf).

This tradition has also been transmitted by Ibn 'Awn from Muhammad (b. Sirin). This version has the wordings: These two rak'ahs were short.

Sunan Abi Dawud Book 5, Hadith 75