In Book 2 of Jalaluddin Rumi's Masnavi, the tale of Jesus and the foolish companion concludes with a violent yet profound spiritual lesson. At the fool's insistence, Jesus prays for the scattered bones to be resurrected. The bones miraculously transform into a ferocious black lion that immediately attacks and kills the foolish man. When Jesus questions the lion, it explains that it struck the man because he had troubled the prophet, though it did not consume his body as it was not its allotted sustenance. Rumi uses this shocking conclusion to deliver a powerful allegory about the nafs (the carnal soul or ego). He warns seekers not to pray for the revival of their base, worldly desires, comparing the nafs to a deadly beast. Indulging or resurrecting these carnal appetites, Rumi cautions, is akin to unleashing a predator that will ultimately turn on and destroy one's own spiritual life.