This is also stated in AN 9.12 – Saupadisesasutta (with something left over/those who pass away with a residue remaining).
In this Sutta Ven. Sariputta is an attendance when a conversation is taken up by a group of wanderers to the effect that those who pass away ‘with something left over’, i.e. who have not destroyed all 10 fetters, are not free from the apayas.
Ven. Sariputta takes no stand but resolves to refer the matter to the Buddha. The Buddha rebuts the claim of the wanderers, and explains that there are 9 people who ‘have fulfilled ethics and immersion, but have limited wisdom’or ‘have fulfilled virtuous behavior and concentration but cultivated wisdom only to a moderate extent’. The first five refer to the destination of Anagamis,the sixth to Sakadagamis and the last three to:
three different destinations of Sotapannas: (they have destroyed the first three fetters)
-those who are one-seeders (ekabiji ) – They will be reborn just one time in a human existence (ekaṃyeva mānusakaṃ bhavaṃ)
– those who go family-to-family (kolankolo) – They will transmigrate between two or three families( dve vā tīṇi vā kulāni )
-those who have at most seven births (sattakkhattuparamo) – They will transmigrate at most seven times among gods and humans.(sattakkhattuparamaṃdeve ca manusse )
….’then make an end of suffering’ follows in all three cases. So, the
question arises:
WHAT DETERMINES IN WHICH CLASS OR AT WHAT LEVEL OF SOTAPANNA ONE IS AT? or, WHAT DISTINGUISHES ONE SOTAPANNA FROM ANOTHER?
(The ‘road ahead’ is longer progressing from the 7th to the 9th; the seventh -ekabiji- path, and the eight to a lesser degree, are more time-economical or efficient than that of a Sakadagami in attaining Nibbana – sacrificing the pleasures to be had in a deva existence ‘taken in the bargain’).
Metta to all