The Sage has emphasized and praised Noble friendship for the world. If one stays with a Noble Friend, even a fool will become a wise person. Stay with them of good heart for the wisdom of those who stay with them grows. And while one is staying with them, from every kind of dukkha one is freed. Dukkha one should know well, and how dukkha arises and ceases, and the Eightfold Path, and the Four Noble Truths. "Woman's state is painful," declares the Trainer of tamable men. "A wife with others is painful and once having borne a child, some even cut their throats; others of delicate constitution poison take, then pain again; and then there's the baby obstructing the birth, killing the mother too." ... Miserable woman, your kin all dead and limitless dukkha you've known. So many tears have you shed in these many thousands of births. ... Wholly developed by me is the Eightfold Noble Path going to Deathlessness, Nibbana realized, I looked into the Mirror of the Dhamma. With dart removed am I, the burden laid down, done what was to be done, The elder nun Kisagotami, freed in mind and heart, has chanted this.
See also: ThigA X.1, the Commentary to this passage.