«اعْلَمْ أَنِّي أُوَالِي هَذَا الْوَالِي»
Know that I maintain an association with this governor or patron.
Uwālī is a Form III present verb of allegiance or close association; al-wālī denotes an authority or governor. Their shared derivation creates audible wordplay while establishing the narrator's personal relationship with his patron.
The examiner now narrates a prior incident. Its function in the maqāmah is to supply the literary problem that defeated other writers and will soon confront the elder.