It is narrated from Sayyiduna Zayd bin Thabit (may Allah be pleased with him); he said that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said to me: "Certain things come to me that I do not want (just anyone) to read. So can you learn the Syriac language?" I said: "Yes." (Sayyiduna Zayd (may Allah be pleased with him) said:) So I learned the language in seventeen (days).
Imam Abu al-Qasim (al-Tabarani) (may Allah have mercy on him) said: Abu Bakr bin Ayyash narrated it in this way through Adi bin Thabit, and in doing so he differed from the chain of the (other) students of al-A'mash. If he preserved it correctly, then it is a rare (gharib) narration among the narrations of Adi bin Thabit; otherwise, the correct version is as the people narrated it from al-A'mash, through Thabit bin Ubayd.
Hadith Referenceالمعجم الكبير للطبراني / باب الزاي / 4911