M3:968 — کان یکی دریاست بی غور و کران / جمله دریاها چو سیلی پیش آن

This beyt appears in the story of Moses's mother being commanded by God to cast her infant son into the Nile. Pharaoh, in his arrogance and cunning, believed he could thwart divine destiny by ordering the slaughter of all male Israelite infants. The preceding verses detail Pharaoh's 'dragon-like' cunning, which devoured the schemes of other kings, yet was ultimately consumed by a greater 'dragon'—God's power, symbolized by Moses's staff turning into a serpent. The narrative builds to a crescendo, emphasizing that there is always a 'hand above a hand' until it reaches God, 'to Whom is the ultimate return.'

It is at this point that Rumi introduces the metaphor of the Sea. God's wisdom and power are not merely 'greater' than Pharaoh's; they are of an entirely different order. Pharaoh's schemes, and indeed all worldly powers and cunning, are likened to 'floods'—temporary, turbulent, and ultimately contained—in comparison to God, who is an 'unfathomable, boundless Sea.' This imagery powerfully conveys the infinite, eternal, and all-encompassing nature of the Divine, making any human attempt to resist or outwit it appear utterly futile and insignificant. The message to Moses's mother, and by extension to the reader, is one of absolute trust in this boundless power, even when faced with seemingly insurmountable dangers.