A man came to Ibn Sirin and said : I saw a man standing in the middle of this mosque, meaning the Basra Mosque, bared with a drawn sword in his hand, and he struck a rock and broke it . Ibn Sirin said : This man should be Hassan Basri . The man said : It is, and God is . Ibn Sirin said : I thought that he was the one who was devoted in religion to the position of the mosque, and that his sword was striking with it, his tongue that was cut off with his words the rock of truth in religion .