M3:3285 — آرزوی گِل بود گِل‌خواره را / گُل‌شکر نگوارد آن بیچاره را

This couplet serves as a potent metaphor within the story of the man who demands that Moses teach him the language of the animals. Rumi uses the image of a gel-khwāra, a person with the strange addiction of eating clay, to illustrate a spiritual principle.

Just as the clay-eater's palate is so conditioned to earth that a fine delicacy like rose-petal jam (gol-shakar) would seem foreign and even sickening, so too is the soul habituated to worldly, carnal desires (ārezu-hā-ye fozul, 'excessive cravings'). The man in the story is not ready for the spiritual knowledge he demands. His soul, accustomed to the 'clay' of mundane concerns, cannot properly assimilate the 'jam' of miraculous insight. Granting his wish would be like feeding a delicacy to someone whose system can only handle dirt—it will cause harm, not nourishment.

The beyt argues that spiritual capacity is not a given; it must be cultivated. Without the proper inner constitution, even a divine gift becomes a source of ruin, a truth Moses understands but the man, in his ignorance, cannot.