Musnad Ahmad 450:2

Isma'il ibn Ibrahim narrated to us, he said: Al-Jariri narrated to us, from Abdullah ibn Shaqiq, from Ibn Hawalah, who said: I came to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) while he was sitting in the shade of a *dawmah* (a type of tree), and he had a scribe with him to whom he was dictating. He said: "Shall I not write you down, O Ibn Hawalah?" I said: "I do not know what Allah and His Messenger have chosen for me." So he turned away from me. Isma'il said, once in the first instance: "Shall we write you down, O Ibn Hawalah?" I said: "I do not know, for what, O Messenger of Allah?" So he turned away from me and leaned over his scribe, dictating to him. Then he said: "Shall we write you down, O Ibn Hawalah?" I said: "I do not know what Allah and His Messenger have chosen for me." So he turned away from me and leaned over his scribe, dictating to him. He said: I looked, and behold, in the writing was 'Umar. I said: "Indeed, 'Umar is not written down except for good." Then he said: "Shall we write you down, O Ibn Hawalah?" I said: "Yes." He said: "O Ibn Hawalah, how will you act during a tribulation that emerges in the corners of the earth, as if it were the horns of cattle?" I said: "I do not know what Allah and His Messenger have chosen for me." He said: "And how will you act during another that emerges after it, as if the first one were merely the twitching of a rabbit?" I said: "I do not know what Allah and His Messenger have chosen for me." He said: "Follow this one." He said: And there was a man with his back turned at that time. He said: So I went and hurried, and I took hold of his shoulders, and I turned his face toward the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), and I said: "This one?" He said: "Yes." He said: And behold, it was Uthman ibn Affan (may Allah the Exalted be pleased with him).