M3:3266 — گفت موسی را یکی مرد جوان / که بیاموزم زبان جانوران

This couplet opens a cautionary tale about the dangers of seeking spiritual knowledge for the wrong reasons. A young man approaches Moses, not with a humble request for guidance, but with a specific, ambitious demand: he wants the miraculous power to understand what animals are saying.

His stated motive, which Rumi reveals in the following lines, is that he hopes to find a purer, more spiritually-focused wisdom in the animal world, believing human speech is corrupted by worldly concerns like food and status. However, Moses immediately recognizes this desire as a dangerous hawas (هوس) — a capricious whim or ego-driven fancy, rather than a sincere spiritual need. The story thus sets up a classic Rumi theme: the distinction between true spiritual seeking, which involves polishing the mirror of one's own heart, and the pursuit of spiritual powers or esoteric knowledge, which often leads to ruin by feeding the ego.