Napoleon was a voracious reader, reading anything that he thought might be useful for him in respect to leadership and command. Often when he was a young sous-lieutenant, he would often eat one meal a day and wash his clothes once a week so he could have money to send home, whatever money he had left over he would spend on books. Even after his rise to power, he would read any book possible on the regions he was moving into.

So, Napoleon would read anything he could with a large amount of attention paid to great commanders and the classics, of which the biggest that has had an influence on him was that of Caesar. Frederick was the legendary commander right after the Seven Years war but had a large influence on the various commentators that would influence Napoleon, particularly the Comte du Guibert that started as a fan of Frederick but would later recant his opinion.

Others that influenced Napoleon would be Gribeauval (whom directed the modernization of French artillery before the Revolution) and the Barons (both brothers) du Teil that would be large supporters of Gribeauval and artillery tactics that Napoleon would push for.

However, there is no evidence that Napoleon was influenced by Frederick himself. The idea of suggesting to others to read the campaigns of great generals is to understand military history and theory, how events and battles worked out, rather than simply approving of these "great commanders." Certainly, Napoleon would be an antithesis to Frederick, using maneuver warfare and combined arms assaults rather than using well trained soldiers firing in static lines.

How much to put into anecdotes is debatable but looking at Napoleon as a commander and leader I would say that Frederick had very little influence on Napoleon.

There is absolutely evidence that Napoleon I studied Frederick's life and military campaigns. In 1806 after Napoleon annihilated Prussia's army in just 3 weeks, he would visit Frederick's tomb to honor his memory, and remarked to his generals "If he were here, we would not be." Painting

And though he did hold immense respect for the man, especially tactically, Napoleon's genius was in operational warfare, i.e. grand tactics, the movement of forces against the opponent during a campaign.

Napoleon stated that to become a good general, one must study the campaigns of "Alexander, Hannibal, Caesar, Gustavus Adolphus, Turenne, Prince Eugene, and Frederick the great."

So Frederick was not the only Great Captain that Napoleon studied, and he certainly didn't seek to replicate maneuvers or strategies but studying Frederick surely helped to reinforce in his mind the importance of the principles of war, something all the great captains would adhere to in their successes, and stray from in their failures, Napoleon included.