The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, "Hearing news is not like seeing with one's own eyes. Allah informed Musa of what his people had done with the calf, yet he did not throw down the tablets. But when he saw with his own eyes what they had done, he threw down the tablets and they broke."
قال رسول الله ﷺ: ليس الخبر كالمعاينة، إن الله أخبر موسى بما صنع قومه في العجل، فلم يلق الألواح، فلما عاين ما صنعوا، ألقى الألواح فانكسرت.
Ahmad (2447) narrated it, as did Tabarani in al-Awsat (25) and in al-Kabir (1183), (1184), and Bazzar (5155), (5062), and Ibn Hibban graded it sahih (6213), (6214), and Hakim (2/321) and (2/380), all of them through the route of Abu Bishr, from Saeed bin Jubayr, from Ibn Abbas, who related it. Its chain of transmission is sahih. Hakim said, "This is a sahih hadith according to the criteria of the two Shaykhs."