«اِلْمَيَّهْ فِي كَعْبِ الْبِهِيمْ»

The image is a waterwheel driven by a draft animal walking in circles; the word for 'heel' here means its hoof or footfall, not a human heel. Each step lifts more water, so the faster and longer it walks, the more water pours out for the fields.

Applied to people, the proverb is a figure about effort, not a claim about where water physically comes from: reward grows in proportion to diligence. Results do not arrive on their own; whoever keeps pushing forward gathers more, while idleness leaves the channel dry.

Suitable for encouraging someone to keep working steadily, or for noting that results track the labor invested and slackening reduces gains. The animal is a working beast in the image, so the saying should not be aimed at a person as an insult.