This was, as he says in the previous sentence, non imaginarie . The language of Incendium Amoris is highly metaphorical and literary, evident early in the text by the recollection of Rolle's emotional reaction to the initial experience. Thus, the mystical experience is not of the ordinary or the familiar. The problem continues here because Rolle uses the metaphorical ita . The all-consuming nature of the experience is noted in the sentences that follow.
Sleep provides the only respite from the heat.
An important paragraph in which Rolle explains the intentions of his work and the projected audience. Rolle sees his audience as those who seek to love God and not to merely amass knowledge. In the final line of the Prologus Rolle tells us that it is for all of the reasons that he has named his work Incendium amoris .