ʿAṭāʾ al-Khaffāf said, “I never encountered Sufyān without finding him in tears. I asked, ‘What is the matter?’ He replied, ‘I am afraid that my name may be written among the wretched in the Mother of the Book.’

Ibn Mahdī said, “The Commander of the Faithful once had Sufyān dragged out into the open. Sufyān thereupon pretended foolishness so as to free himself from the caliph; when the latter realized he was only feigning, he let him go, and Sufyān fled …”, and he related the rest of the story.

It was transmitted by Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq ibn al-Walīd, from ʿAbd Allāh, the brother of Rustah, from him.

Ibn al-Mubārak narrated from Sufyān that he said, “He is no jurist who does not count affliction a blessing and ease a misfortune.”

Ibn Wahb said, “I saw al-Thawrī in the Sacred Precinct after the sunset prayer. He prayed, then went into a single prostration and did not raise his head until the call for the night prayer was made.”

With this same chain Abu Nuʿaym reported: al-Ṭabarānī told us; ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz told us; ʿĀrim told us:

“I visited Abū Manṣūr while he was ill. He said to me, ‘Sufyān spent last night in this room, and there was a nightingale here that belonged to my son. He said, “Why is this bird imprisoned? If only it were set free.” I replied, “It is my son’s, and he will give it to you.” He said, “No; I will pay him one dinar for it.” So he paid the dinar, took the bird, and released it. The bird would go out each day to forage, then return at dusk and perch in a corner of the house. When Sufyān died, the bird followed his funeral, fluttering over his grave. For several nights thereafter it kept coming to the grave—sometimes spending the night on it, sometimes returning to the house—until they found it dead by the grave, whereupon they buried it there.’ ”

Abū Manṣūr—Busr ibn Manṣūr al-Salīmī—was the man with whom Sufyān hid in Baṣra after leaving the house of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Mahdī. This was stated by al-Ṭabarānī.

In another report it is said that Sufyān would accept gifts from certain people and would repay them for what they had given (1).