Does a divorce count as three, or as one, on the second occasion, and is it permissible to take the wife back after that?

If a husband consults scholars (Ahl al-Ilm) and they issue a fatwa that a single divorce has occurred by his saying, "You are divorced, divorced, divorced," and he did not intend more than one, then there is no objection to acting upon this fatwa. If this was the second divorce, the husband can reconcile with his wife before the expiry of her 'iddah by saying, "I have reconciled with my wife," and the wife must remain in her home.