«مِنْ جُوَّا أَحْسَنْ يَا حَكِيمْ»

A remedy or nourishment does far more good when it is actually taken into the body, as by eating, than when it merely rests on the surface. The guiding image is bread for a hungry person: eating it helps, laying it against the body does not.

Figuratively, it rebuffs help that puts the needed thing within reach yet withholds its real use. The speaker is the one in need, correcting a physician (ḥakīm here, not a sage) or other provider and naming the plain, more useful way to apply what is at hand.

A pointed retort when a real need, especially hunger, meets only an outward or token treatment, although the very thing offered would satisfy that need if handed over to be consumed or used directly.