Trifolium and trefoil

Meaning

The philosophical riddle asks for a little plant called Trifolium and tells the reader to seek one in three and three in one. It places body, soul, and spirit beside salt, sulphur, and mercury, while insisting that the plant-name itself must be understood. The trefoil supplies a threefold naming-image, not a secure botanical identification of the material. The concluding demand to understand both tone and song makes reading the verbal pattern part of the task. The lexicon therefore preserves the Latin forms without proposing a plant to collect or a decoded formula.