It is said that the first person who spoke this proverb was an Arab man named Jaber bin Adei who told it to his son Adei when he went out hunting. He mounted his horse and rode far into the desert until his horse stumbled and threw him, causing him great injury. He sought someone to treat him and found a man of a gentle nature named Jaber with his wife.
When Adei asked the man about his horse, he had only one mare, so he asked his wife about her husband and she told him that there was a man named Jaber of Ta’yi clan who had become a king because of a man of noble lineage, Jaber asked to treat his wound so he could eat, but she did not know who he was.
The wife cooked food for the king and sat serving him, and when morning came the king mounted his horse and said to the man, “O brother Adei, ask for your request, for I am King Jaber.” The man said, “If God wills,” and the king departed for Ta’yi, and time passed on that incident and the people lived in peace.
Then the man said to his wife, “If I had gone to the king perhaps he would have honored me,” so the wife said, “Why do you not go to the king so that he may honor you?” So the man went to the king and it was a difficult day for the king, for the king would feed people two days every Friday and Monday, and when the man reached the king he knew that he had been with him.
The king asked, “Are you the man who came to my house to treat me?” The man said, “Yes,” so the king said, “Do not pass by me on a day other than this,” and the man said, “And what do I know about this day?” The king said, “God willing, He will heal me in this day and make me strong like before.”
The king said, “I ask you for a reward because you saved me,” and the man said, “And what will I do with the reward if I cut myself?” The man asked that he should wait so he could go to inform his people about their situation then return to him.
The king sent a man to follow him so he could watch behind him, and he found a beautiful camel named Amr, and there was a wolf, and the king’s right-hand man was the man who sat on his right, and when the king rode the wolf rode the mare then rode the people, and if the king sat in a place to rest among people until the king returned, the man asked his hand but the wolf of Amr refused.
Then a man from the crowd named Jaber bin Adei said to the king, “I am your servant,” and the king agreed and let the man return to him and gave him gifts and healed him completely from that day to the day of his return.
When the year passed and only one day remained the king looked at Jaber and said to him, “If this Friday comes and passes, then surely my sight is close.”
And the next day the king mounted his horse and rode as he had in this day with Jaber and wanted to kill him immediately, and when he was about to kill him, his wife said to him, “Kill him before he tastes his day,” and they waited until the dust of the wind rose and the man did not return and looked at the horizon waiting to cut off his head, and his wife had gone mad and was saying, “O eyes weeping for Jaber bin Adei, our father killed not our father returned, the reward has gone without value,” and she stood crying in front of the house, “And I went quickly to the house and saw him suffering.”
And when he was about to cut off his head he saw a man coming from afar, so the wolf of God said, “You should not kill him until you see the lineage, so if he is the man who has come to us.”
The king was surprised and said to him, “What made you come back?” The man said, “The promise,” so the king said, “And what made you come back to the promise?” The man said, “Two,” and the man was standing between them while the king was among the enemies, and he said to the woman, “Offer your two,” and when she offered the repentance, he repented for all around him and got up from the bed of Friday and forgave Jaber and the man.
And when he got up his head and saw a man coming from afar and the wolf of God said, “You should not kill him until you see the tribe, so he is the man who has come to us.”