Knowledge Or Wealth?

It is narrated:

قيل للخليل بن أحمد: أيهما أفضل: العلم أو المال؟قال العلم.
قيل له: فما بال العلماء يزدحمون على أبواب الملوك و الملوك لا يزدحمون على أبواب العلماء؟
قال: ذلك لمعرفة العلماء بحقّ الملوك و جهل الملوك بحق العلماء.

Al-Khalil ibn Ahmad was asked: “Which is better: knowledge or wealth?”

He replied: “Knowledge.”

He was asked again: “So why do the people of knowledge crowd at the kings’ doors, and the kings don’t crowd at the doors of the people of knowledge?”

He answered: “That is because the people of knowledge know their duty to the kings but the kings don’t know their duty to the people of knowledge.”

[“Al-‘Iqd al-Farid”, 2/82].