علو الهمة: عن فرقد إمام مسجد البصرة قال: دخلوا على سفيان الثوري رحمه الله في مرضه الذي مات فيه، فحدثه رجل بحديث فأعجبه، وضرب يده إلى تحت فراشه فأخرج ألواحًا له فكتب ذلك الحديث، فقالوا له: على هذه الحال منك؟ فقال: إنه حسن، إن بقيت فقد سمعت حسنًا، وإن مت فقد كتبت حسنًا. [الحلية (تهذيبه) 2 / 404].
Full English translationHigh ambition: On the authority of Farqad, the imam of the mosque of Basra, he said: They entered upon Sufyan al-Thawri, may God have mercy on him, during the illness from which he died. A man told him a hadith which pleased him, and he reached under his bed and took out some tablets and wrote that hadith. They said to him: In this condition of yours? He said: It is good. If I live, I have heard something good, and if I die, I have written something good. [Al-Hilya (its abridgment) 2/404].