The hoopoe, who encompassed knowledge that even the Prophet of God, Solomon—Exalted is His Might—had not encompassed, could possibly be the guide for the rest of his species, and so it goes for others.

Therefore, those who believe in reincarnation have said that after a human soul leaves its body at death, it attaches itself to the body of an animal that suits the base character trait firmly rooted within it. For instance, the soul of a deceitful person might attach to the body of a fox, the soul of a resentful person to the body of a wolf, the soul of one who tracks the failings and private matters of others to the body of a pig, and the soul of the gluttonous to the body of a cow. Thus, it continues to transition from one body to another, tormented by this process if it was a wretched soul possessed of base morals.

However, if the soul was happy, it attaches after death to a happy body that completes its felicity, belonging to the most virtuous of human individuals. In this regard, al-Tabataba'i says that the meaning of the verse is: there is no animal among the animals except that they are nations like you, having transitioned after death into animal forms.