17 – Abū Zayd al-Numayrī related to me; Abū ʿĀṣim al-Nabīl told me; my father told me, saying: Qays b. Saʿd said:

“I once wished I could be in the position of a man I met. We were returning from Syria when we came upon a tent and said, ‘Let us stop here.’ Inside was a woman, and before long a man arrived driving a few of his camels.

‘Who are these people?’ he asked.

She replied, ‘Travellers who have stopped by you.’

He brought a she-camel, struck its hind-tendons, and said, ‘Here you are—slaughter it.’ So we slaughtered it and enjoyed the choicest of its meat.

The next morning he brought another camel, hamstrung it, and said, ‘My guests, slaughter this one as well.’ So we did. We said, ‘We still have plenty of meat left.’

He answered, ‘We do not feed our guests meat that has lain overnight.’

I said to my companions, ‘If we stay with this man, he will soon have no camels left. Let us move on.’ I told my steward, ‘Gather whatever you have.’

He said, ‘Only four hundred dirhams.’

I replied, ‘Bring them—and my set of garments.’ We collected them, and I said, ‘Give them to him quickly.’ We handed them to his wife and set off.

Not long afterwards we saw a figure.

‘What is that?’ I asked.

They said, ‘We do not know.’

As it drew near we saw a man on horseback polishing his spear—our very host.

I cried, ‘Alas! By Allah, he must have thought our gift too small.’

He came up and said, ‘Here—take back your goods.’

I said, ‘By Allah, it is only what you saw; we gathered everything we possessed.’

He said, ‘By Allah, I am not going where you are headed, so take it back.’

We replied, ‘We will not take it.’

He swore, ‘By Allah, I shall charge you with my spear until not one of you remains, unless you take it.’

So we took it ⦗28⦘, whereupon he turned away and said, ‘We are a people who never sell our hospitality.’