Two poets may discuss the rarity of a generous person in the same age without one necessarily borrowing from the other. Examine whether a distinctive imaginative mechanism—for example, presenting time itself as generous or miserly—has been transferred, and what evidence establishes priority.
أَعْدَى الزَّمَانَ سَخَاؤُهُ فَسَخَا بِهِ
His generosity infected Time itself, so Time showed generosity by granting him.
The image personifies time and links transmitted generosity to its effect. Whether the later utterance is more eloquent and whether it historically derives from an earlier poem are different questions. A more striking formulation does not by itself prove a claim of borrowing.