سَمِعْنَا مِنَ الْبَابِ نَبْأَةَ مُسْتَنْبِحٍ ثُمَّ تَلَتْهَا صَكَّةُ مُسْتَفْتِحٍ
We heard a cry from the doorway, as if someone were calling to be noticed; then came a knock from someone seeking admission.
Mustanbiḥ is someone calling to attract attention; mustaftiḥ is someone seeking the opening of a door. Nabʾah is the initial cry, ṣakkah the knock that follows. The vocabulary sequences the scene.
The forms sound related, yet the roots and acts differ. Rendering both merely as “a visitor” loses the progression from a tentative signal to a direct request for entry.
Semantic distinction exercise
Which order matches the doorway scene?