`version` is used as a special field, but `Vips` library have function named this way

After having some not so fun time trying to debug this issue (it somehow worked right way first time and I have no idea why), it looks like I've found a problem regarding Vips library.

lgi allows to take a look at version of package loaded using field called version: https://github.com/pavouk/lgi/blob/master/lgi/gi.c#L680-L684

However, Vips library have function named this way (copied from /usr/share/gir-1.0/Vips-8.0.gir):

    <function name="version" c:identifier="vips_version">
      <doc xml:space="preserve"
           filename="iofuncs/init.c"
           line="1076">Get the major, minor or micro library version, with @flag values 0, 1 and
2.

Get the ABI current, revision and age (as used by libtool) with @flag
values 3, 4, 5.</doc>
      <source-position filename="include/vips/vips.h" line="178"/>
      <return-value transfer-ownership="none">
        <doc xml:space="preserve"
             filename="iofuncs/init.c"
             line="1086">library version number</doc>
        <type name="gint" c:type="int"/>
      </return-value>
      <parameters>
        <parameter name="flag" transfer-ownership="none">
          <doc xml:space="preserve"
               filename="iofuncs/init.c"
               line="1078">which field of the version to get</doc>
          <type name="gint" c:type="int"/>
        </parameter>
      </parameters>
    </function>

As a result, lgi overrides this function and returns its own string instead. Commenting out that part of code makes everything work as intended.

It worked first time I tried it (version was a function) and I don't know why:
print(lgi.Vips:_resolve(true).version) still returns string value.

Are there any ways to work this around? Any ideas how it worked the first time?

I'd suggest to prefix all special names reserved by lgi with _ like you did with _resolve to avoid such collisions in the future, so it would be _version, _name, etc. If you agree with this, I can quickly submit a patch (they aren't documented anywhere, so it shouldn't be a big deal).

Start at lgi/gi.c lines 680-684 and inspect how the special version field is resolved for the Vips GIR version function. Confirm the binding preserves the Vips function without overriding it with package metadata, then validate the behavior using the print(lgi.Vips:_resolve(true).version) example and a Vips installation.