The distinction between irrational and human souls

And the decorations of these, or of the doves, are adorned in the greenness of gold, the gold signifying the mind, and the greenness symbolizing life and incorruptibility.

Therefore, those who are adorned by wisdom—by which God wills that the creeping things to be removed from the waters (Gen 1:20)—these are doves having another mind, being raised up by the wings of truth and always having the life-giving Spirit within themselves. God likewise blesses these very things, so that they may receive multitude and increase; multitude so that they may imitate others, and increase so that they may always have love for the perfection of the good.

And the command 'and fill the waters' (Gen 1:22) would signify that you are no longer being submerged by the bonds of sin, but you continue to dwell, holding yourselves above yourselves. Or perhaps, since water has its own fullness and use for cleansing and watering, both to soak and to sustain, it advises that, turning away from those things which happen under it by intention or by aim—where I say being constricted and submerged by the chains of sins—you move toward those activities: the being watered from pure water and not being constricted, and being cleansed, being freed from all filth, fulfilling these activities of the water, being watered from the immortal water and being cleansed, but not being constricted.

And 'there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day' (Gen 1:23) signifies thus how the day of the sensible reaches its end upon the intelligible; for the end of the passing day becomes the beginning of the one that follows. Therefore, having left the sensible, they move toward the perfect, which is signified by the number six; for the progress of the five leads toward the six. Yet these things are not to be observed by number alone, but according to the meanings within the numbers: the five signifying the sensible, and the six signifying the perfection of the present.

And God said: 'Let the earth bring forth a living soul according to its kind, four-footed and creeping and beasts' (Gen 1:24). Likewise, what God said before must be observed; He said so that the earth might bring forth living souls, which serves as a demonstration...

The souls of irrational animals are not joined to their bodies as they are being corrupted, unlike the souls of humans; for these irrational souls remain even after dissolution. Many, including those outside the faith, agree to this, thinking it is a light matter, though they have only a dim conception of the whole; they say it is a fading thing, but that there is a certain place where souls rub themselves after their departure from there.

Indeed, the command regarding irrational animals is that the earth should bring forth a living soul according to kind—quadrupeds and creeping things and beasts—as the command subjects it; for the earth has the power of the irrational animals coming out of it, a kind of logos-seed existing in it, but rather in the seeds of the animals, this being closer, since the irrational souls provide the imaginative and impulsive motion to the bodies, being themselves corporeal, but rather being in the body and in its composition. For they say, 'The soul is the blood of every living thing' (Gen 2:7). The common things to them are feeding, watching, sleeping, and tiring. But the command is not about every soul, but only about irrational ones; for the human soul is created according to the image and likeness of God, as will be known more precisely in the following.

Furthermore, since the animals brought forth from the earth are not all alike but are submitted to different forms according to kind, he said 'according to kind' (Gen 1:24), signifying the form. Thus, kind is common to them; for all living things have departed from non-living by slight differences in essence; for the essence of a horse is different from that of an ox, and of others likewise. And the command is made for three kinds: quadrupeds and beasts and creeping things, not all quadrupeds and beasts being present. So perhaps one would call the quadrupeds that are useful to men today 'quadrupeds,' but the beasts are those quadrupeds that are countless, and the creeping things are whatever is serpent-like, and the differences of these are not unknown to those who have studied history. And it happened thus (Gen 1:24). For it was necessary that the reality should follow the command. And if anyone were to be surprised by the 'and it happened'...