Al-Firyabi said, “Ibn al-Mubarak visited me and asked, ‘Bring out for me the hadith transmitted by al-Thawri.’ When I presented it to him, he began to weep until his beard was soaked, and he exclaimed, ‘By Allah, I do not think I shall ever see his like again.’

Zayidah said, “Sufyan is the most knowledgeable jurist on earth.”

Zayd ibn Abi Zurqah related: “al-Mu‘afa would admonish al-Thawri, saying, ‘Abu ‘Abd Allah, what is this joking? Such behavior is not befitting of scholars,’ and Sufyan would accept his counsel.”

Damrah narrated from Sufyan that he said, “A boy begins to cut his teeth at seven, reaches puberty seven years later, attains his full height after another seven, his intellect matures seven years after that, and beyond that come life’s experiences.” (1)

Abu Usamah said, “When Sufyan fell ill, I took a sample of his urine to the physician, who said, ‘This is the urine of an ascetic; sorrow has shattered this man’s liver—there is no cure for him.’ ”

Damrah said, “I heard Malik say, ‘In earlier days Iraq would flood us with silver coins and garments; now it floods us with Sufyan al-Thawri.’ ”

Sufyan, for his part, used to say, “Malik’s memory is not strong.”

I say: Sufyan made this statement because of the exceptional power of his own memory, the vast number of hadith he had collected, and the journeys he undertook across the regions. As for Malik, his precision and legal insight are unmatched, and his memory is indeed sound—may Allah be pleased with them both.

Abu Hatim al-Razi said, “Sufyan was a jurist, a master memorizer, an ascetic, an imam—his memorization surpassed that of Shu‘bah.”

Abu Zur‘ah said, “Sufyan’s retention was superior to Shu‘bah’s in both chain of transmission and text.”