One who will withdraw from you, publishing your bounty.
Said Al Harith, son of Hammam: Now when we were caught by the sweetness of his utterance, and knew what was behind his lightning, we hastened to open the gate, and met him with welcome; and said to the boy "Quick, quick! bring what is ready!" Then said our guest, "Now, by him who has set me down at your abode, I will not roll my tongue over your food, unless ye pledge me that ye will not make me a burden, that ye will not, for my sake, task yourselves with a meal. For sometimes a morsel aches the eater, and forbids him his repasts. And the worst of guests is he who imposes trouble and annoys his host, and especially with a harm that affects the body and tends to sickness. For, by that proverb, which is widely current, 'The best Slippers are those that are clearly seen,' is only meant that supper-time should be hastened, and eating by night, which dims the sight, avoided. Unless, by Allah, the fire of hunger kindle and stand in the way of sleep." Said Al Harith: Now it was as though he had got sight of our desire, and so had shot with the bow of our conviction. Accordingly we gratified him by agreeing to the condition, and commended him for his easy temper. And when the boy brought what was to be had, and lighted the candle in the midst of us, I looked close at him, and lo! it was Abu Zayd. So I said to my company, "Joy to you of the guest who has come! Nay, but the spoil is lightly won! For if the moon of Sirius has gone down, truly the moon of poetry has risen: Or if the full moon of the Lion has waned, the full moon of eloquence shines forth." Then ran through them the wine-glow of joy, and sleep flew away from their eye-corners. And they refused the rest which they had purposed, and returned to the spreading out of pleasantry, after they had folded it. But Abu Zayd kept intent upon plying his hands; however, when what was before him might be removed, I said to him, "Present us with one of the rare stories from thy night talkings, or some wonder from among the wonders of thy journeys." He said, "Of wonders I have met with such as no seers have seen, no tellers have told. But among the most wondrous was that which I beheld to-night, a little before my visit to you and my coming to your gate." Then we bade him tell us of this new thing which he had seen in the field of his night-faring. He said, Truly the hurlings of exile have thrown me to this land: And I was in hunger and distress, with a scrip like the heart of the mother of Moses. Now, as soon as the dark had settled, I arose, in spite of all my footsoreness, to seek a host or to gain a loaf. Then the driver hunger, and Fate, which is by-named the Father of Wonders, urged me on, till I stood at the door of a house, and spoke, improvising:
Hail people of this dwelling,
May ye live in the ease of a plenteous life!
What have ye for a son of the road, one crushed to the sand,
Worn with journeys, stumbling in the night-dark night,
Aching in entrails, which enclose naught but hunger?
For two days he has not tasted the savor of a meal:
In your land there is no refuge for him.
And already the van of the drooping darkness has gloomed;