batch.motif.sufi-rumi-mesnevi-book-1-redhouse-gutenberg-l7566-l7673
---
record_id: batch.motif.sufi-rumi-mesnevi-book-1-redhouse-gutenberg-l7566-l7673
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/sufi/project-gutenberg/mesnevi-book-1-redhouse.md
passage_locator:
label: OF QONYA. / PREFACE. / IN THE NAME OF GOD, / THE ALL-MERCIFUL, THE VERY-COMPASSIONATE.;
lines 7566-7673
start: '7566'
end: '7673'
translation: The Mesnevi
notes: Generated from OpenAI Batch run motif-extraction-2026-04-28-high-priority;
human review required.
canonical_text:
quote: ''
summary: A dispute over reliance on means and divine providence is illustrated by
a story of a frightened man whom Solomon sends by wind to Hindustan, where the
Angel of Death had been commanded to take his soul. The lion then argues that
exertion can itself be ordained by God, contrasting worldly stratagems with spiritual
effort and using images of prison, ship, water, empty jar, poverty, and wisdom.
language: English
quote_policy: summarized
literal_observations:
- id: obs:1
text: The beasts raise a clamour and argue that dependence on means is driven by
greed and that human devices cannot increase what Providence has decreed.
category: speech
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: obs:2
text: A frightened man comes to Solomon’s court with blanched cheeks and blue lips
after receiving a look from the Angel of Death.
category: action
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- id: obs:3
text: The frightened man asks Solomon to command the wind to carry him to Hindustan
so that he may save his life by fleeing there.
category: speech
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- id: obs:4
text: Solomon commands the wind to carry the man to Hindustan.
category: action
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- id: obs:5
text: The Angel of Death tells Solomon that God had commanded him to take the man’s
soul in Hindustan that day.
category: speech
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- id: obs:6
text: The Angel of Death says he found the man in Hindustan and took his soul there.
category: action
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- id: obs:7
text: The narrator states that earthly events are ordained by God and written before
birth.
category: speech
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- id: obs:8
text: The lion says the prophets and saints acted through stratagems dictated by
God and that exertion is not a struggle against Providence.
category: speech
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- id: obs:9
text: The lion contrasts worldly stratagems with stratagems for gaining heaven and
describes the world as a dungeon or prison.
category: speech
evidence_refs:
- ev:7
- id: obs:10
text: The lion uses images of a leaking ship, sea under the keel, Solomon’s poverty
amid treasures, an empty jar floating, and the heart sealed with love and filled
with wisdom.
category: speech
evidence_refs:
- ev:8
- id: obs:11
text: After the lion’s proofs, the compulsionists give no answer, and the fox, deer,
hare, and jackal abandon the cause of compulsion.
category: sequence
evidence_refs:
- ev:9
figures:
- id: fig:1
name_or_label: the beasts
description: A collective group that argues against reliance on human means and
in favor of the decreed lot of Providence.
role_refs:
- role:1
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: fig:2
name_or_label: Solomon
description: A king holding a court of justice who commands the wind and later questions
the Angel of Death.
role_refs:
- role:2
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- ev:4
- id: fig:3
name_or_label: the frightened man
description: A simpleton or poor wretch who fears the Angel of Death, asks to be
carried to Hindustan, and is found dead there by divine appointment.
role_refs:
- role:3
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- ev:4
- id: fig:4
name_or_label: the Angel of Death
description: A divine agent who looks at the man, explains his surprise, and takes
the man’s soul in Hindustan by God’s command.
role_refs:
- role:4
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- ev:4
- id: fig:5
name_or_label: the lion
description: A speaker who responds to the beasts, arguing that exertion can be
part of Providence and supporting this with examples and images.
role_refs:
- role:5
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- ev:7
- ev:8
- ev:9
- id: fig:6
name_or_label: prophets and saints
description: Figures invoked by the lion as examples whose efforts and stratagems
are blessed and dictated by God.
role_refs:
- role:6
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- id: fig:7
name_or_label: the fox, the deer, the hare, and the jackal
description: Animals who are said to abandon the cause of compulsion after the lion’s
proofs.
role_refs:
- role:7
evidence_refs:
- ev:9
roles:
- id: role:1
label: advocates of providential compulsion
assigned_to:
- fig:1
basis: They argue that efforts and devices cannot increase the portion decreed by
Providence.
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: role:2
label: king and judge with command over wind
assigned_to:
- fig:2
basis: Solomon holds a court of justice and commands the wind to carry the man away.
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- ev:4
- id: role:3
label: fugitive from death
assigned_to:
- fig:3
basis: The man flees the Angel of Death by asking to be carried to Hindustan, where
his soul is taken.
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- ev:4
- id: role:4
label: divine death agent
assigned_to:
- fig:4
basis: The Angel of Death acts on God’s command to take the man’s soul in Hindustan.
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- id: role:5
label: advocate of providential exertion
assigned_to:
- fig:5
basis: The lion argues that exertion is enjoined by Providence and is not opposed
to God’s plan.
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- ev:9
- id: role:6
label: exemplars of blessed effort
assigned_to:
- fig:6
basis: The lion cites prophets and saints as figures whose actions God blessed and
whose stratagems came from God.
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- id: role:7
label: former supporters of compulsion
assigned_to:
- fig:7
basis: They are said to quit the cause of compulsion after the lion’s argument.
evidence_refs:
- ev:9
symbols:
- id: sym:1
label: wind as commanded conveyance
literal_form: wind commanded by Solomon to carry the man to Hindustan
associated_figures:
- fig:2
- fig:3
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- ev:4
- id: sym:2
label: Hindustan as attempted refuge and appointed death-place
literal_form: Hindustan, the place to which the man flees and where the Angel of
Death takes his soul
associated_figures:
- fig:3
- fig:4
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- ev:4
- id: sym:3
label: world as prison or dungeon
literal_form: prison door, dungeon floor, prison gate, and world as dungeon
associated_figures:
- fig:5
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:7
- id: sym:4
label: water, leak, ship, and sea
literal_form: water from a leak endangering a ship and the sea beneath the keel
making it move
associated_figures:
- fig:5
taxonomy_refs:
- water
evidence_refs:
- ev:8
- id: sym:5
label: empty jar floating on the sea
literal_form: an empty jar filled with air floating upon a raging sea
associated_figures:
- fig:5
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:8
- id: sym:6
label: heart sealed and filled with wisdom
literal_form: the inlet to the heart closed and sealed with love, then filled with
wisdom’s spirit
associated_figures:
- fig:5
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:8
- id: sym:7
label: insatiate dragons
literal_form: millions described as insatiate dragons displaying gaping jaws
associated_figures:
- fig:1
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
scenes:
- id: scene:1
label: Beasts argue against reliance on means
summary: The beasts claim that dependence on means springs from greed and that human
plans cannot exceed the portion decreed by Providence.
figure_refs:
- fig:1
symbol_refs:
- sym:7
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: scene:2
label: Frightened man appeals to Solomon
summary: A terrified man comes to Solomon’s court and asks that the wind be commanded
to carry him to Hindustan to escape the Angel of Death.
figure_refs:
- fig:2
- fig:3
- fig:4
symbol_refs:
- sym:1
- sym:2
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- id: scene:3
label: Death appointment fulfilled in Hindustan
summary: Solomon sends the man by wind to Hindustan; the Angel of Death later explains
that God had commanded him to take the man’s soul there that day.
figure_refs:
- fig:2
- fig:3
- fig:4
symbol_refs:
- sym:1
- sym:2
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- id: scene:4
label: Narrator draws lesson from the death story
summary: The narrator states that earthly events are ordained by God and asks rhetorically
how one could flee from oneself or from God.
figure_refs: []
symbol_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- id: scene:5
label: Lion argues for exertion under Providence
summary: The lion accepts the truth of Providence but argues that the prophets and
saints exerted themselves through God-given stratagems and that effort can fulfill
God’s plan.
figure_refs:
- fig:5
- fig:6
symbol_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- id: scene:6
label: Lion teaches with prison, ship, and jar images
summary: The lion contrasts worldly and heavenly stratagems, describes the world
as a prison, and uses images of water, ship, empty jar, poverty, love, and wisdom
to explain spiritual safety.
figure_refs:
- fig:5
- fig:2
symbol_refs:
- sym:3
- sym:4
- sym:5
- sym:6
evidence_refs:
- ev:7
- ev:8
- id: scene:7
label: Compulsionists fall silent
summary: After many proofs from the lion, the compulsionists do not answer, and
several animals abandon the cause of compulsion.
figure_refs:
- fig:5
- fig:7
symbol_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:9
candidate_motifs:
- id: motif:1
label: appointed death fulfilled by attempted escape
taxonomy_refs: []
basis: The man flees to Hindustan to escape the Angel of Death, but the Angel had
been commanded to take his soul in Hindustan and does so there.
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- ev:4
- ev:5
confidence: high
cautions: The passage presents this as a didactic story about divine ordination;
no broader historical relationship is asserted.
- id: motif:2
label: providence and human exertion debated
taxonomy_refs:
- wisdom
basis: The beasts argue that effort cannot alter Providence, while the lion argues
that exertion itself is ordained and exemplified by prophets and saints.
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:6
- ev:9
confidence: high
cautions: The taxonomy reference is broad and reflects the didactic argument rather
than a narrow named tale type.
- id: motif:3
label: world as prison and spiritual release
taxonomy_refs:
- mystical_quest
basis: The lion says the world is a dungeon, urges the listener to burst the prison
gate, and distinguishes stratagems for worldly gain from those for gaining heaven.
evidence_refs:
- ev:7
confidence: medium
cautions: The passage uses liberation imagery, but it is not a full journey narrative.
- id: motif:4
label: spiritual poverty as buoyancy above the world
taxonomy_refs:
- wisdom
basis: The lion says Solomon despised wealth, an empty jar floats on the sea, and
the afflatus of true poverty buoys the soul above worldly troubles.
evidence_refs:
- ev:8
confidence: high
cautions: This is an explicitly moral and mystical image rather than an independent
narrative episode.
- id: motif:5
label: divinely commanded supernatural agents
taxonomy_refs: []
basis: Solomon commands the wind, and the Angel of Death acts under God’s command
to take the man’s soul at the appointed place.
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- ev:4
confidence: medium
cautions: The wind and angel appear within a moral exemplum; the passage does not
develop them as a separate mythic cycle.
comparison_claims:
- id: claim:1
claim: The Solomon episode functions as a wisdom exemplum about the impossibility
of escaping divinely appointed death.
claim_level: same_function
target: wisdom exemplum pattern
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- ev:4
- ev:5
counter_evidence_refs: []
confidence: high
limitations: This is a functional comparison to a didactic pattern only; the passage
does not establish historical contact or a specific external tale type.
- id: claim:2
claim: The prison-world imagery functions like a mystical release pattern, where
spiritual effort aims to free the soul from worldly confinement.
claim_level: same_function
target: mystical_quest / spiritual liberation pattern
evidence_refs:
- ev:7
- ev:8
counter_evidence_refs: []
confidence: medium
limitations: The passage supplies imagery of release but not a detailed quest itinerary.
evidence:
- id: ev:1
type: summary
locator: lines 7566-7580
quote_or_summary: The beasts argue that reliance on means is greed, that want and
stratagems are widespread, and that only the lot decreed by Providence stands
while human plans come to nothing.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/sufi/project-gutenberg/mesnevi-book-1-redhouse.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:2
type: summary
locator: lines 7581-7596
quote_or_summary: A frightened man comes to Solomon’s court, says the Angel of Death
looked at him, and asks Solomon to command the wind to carry him to Hindustan
so he might save his life.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/sufi/project-gutenberg/mesnevi-book-1-redhouse.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:3
type: summary
locator: lines 7597-7601
quote_or_summary: The narrator compares mankind’s fear of poverty and pursuit of
greed with the frightened man’s dismay and flight to Hindustan.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/sufi/project-gutenberg/mesnevi-book-1-redhouse.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:4
type: summary
locator: lines 7602-7621
quote_or_summary: Solomon commands the wind to carry the man to Hindustan; later
the Angel of Death explains that God had commanded him to take the man’s soul
in Hindustan, where he found and took him.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/sufi/project-gutenberg/mesnevi-book-1-redhouse.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:5
type: quote
locator: lines 7622-7625
quote_or_summary: "“’Tis God ordains. Reflect. ’Twas written ere his birth.”"
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/sufi/project-gutenberg/mesnevi-book-1-redhouse.md
rights_note: Public domain source; short quotation.
- id: ev:6
type: summary
locator: lines 7626-7642
quote_or_summary: The lion says prophets and saints acted successfully by God’s
will, that their stratagems were dictated by God, and that exertion is not opposed
to Providence but enjoined by it.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/sufi/project-gutenberg/mesnevi-book-1-redhouse.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:7
type: summary
locator: lines 7643-7651
quote_or_summary: The lion says worldly stratagems are vile, heavenly stratagems
are worthwhile, the world is a dungeon, and one should burst the prison gate and
be free from fear.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/sufi/project-gutenberg/mesnevi-book-1-redhouse.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:8
type: summary
locator: lines 7652-7663
quote_or_summary: The lion compares wealth to water leaking into a ship, the sea
beneath a ship to support, Solomon to one poor amid treasures, an empty jar to
a soul buoyed by true poverty, and the heart to something sealed with love and
filled with wisdom.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/sufi/project-gutenberg/mesnevi-book-1-redhouse.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:9
type: summary
locator: lines 7664-7673
quote_or_summary: The lion says endeavour is from God; after many proofs, the compulsionists
give no answer, and the fox, deer, hare, and jackal abandon compulsion’s cause.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/sufi/project-gutenberg/mesnevi-book-1-redhouse.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
confidence:
extraction: high
motif_candidates: medium
comparison_claims: medium
notes: Narrative sequence and figures are explicit. Motif labels are interpretive
but grounded in the passage’s stated morals and imagery; taxonomy matches are
broad.
reviewer_status:
status: needs_review
reviewer: ''
reviewed_at: ''
notes: Machine-generated draft from OpenAI Batch; not human-reviewed.
extracted_by: openai_batch:gpt-5.5
extracted_at: '2026-04-29'
notes: |-
Only the supplied passage and metadata were used. Footnote numbers in the passage were not independently interpreted.
batch_run_id=motif-extraction-2026-04-28-high-priority
custom_id=motif_extract:sufi-rumi-mesnevi-book-1-redhouse-gutenberg__l7566-l7673
passage_sha256=8714947a86b24e39e7f7abf91274d00a95a3eaf0e30e485d17650e5151d44921