Similar to pigeons are birds in cages; they signify free men or slaves or captives; or they may refer to children and stored wealth for the one who possesses them.
Shaykh Shihaab-ud-Deen said: The one that is in a cage signifies one who is sick and in prison, or a captive or a wife, because they are not in control of their own affairs and because someone else is taking care of them.
Song birds such as the nightingale, wood pigeon and the like, signify Khateebs, preachers and Qur’an readers, and also singers. If a person has a wife who is pregnant, he will be blessed with a boy or will buy a slave girl with a beautiful voice. If the bird sings for one who has a sick love one, weeping but not screaming, he will recover from sickness or his livelihood will increase. But if it weeps with screaming or laugh or shouts, or dances, then his sick loved one will die or the one who is absent will come or he will go through difficulties or his wife will leave him.
The one in the cage may be indicative of one who is in prison. Soif a person dreams that he is feeding a bird in a cage, he will speak to someone who is in prison or he will try to set him free or he may tend to a sick person. If the one who is in the cage flies away without his consent, then his sick loved one will die or he will leave one who is dear to him.
A man dreamt that he had a pouter pigeon whose tongue had been cut out and that he fixed its tongue and it became sound. Shaykh Shihaabud-Deen said to him: Do you know what cut its tongue? He said: It cut it on a piece of glass from a bottle. He said: You know a Khateeb or a preacher or singer who was banned from speaking. He was drinking alcohol and you are trying to bring him back to his profession, or he may have trouble with his wife. He said: You are right.
Another man dreamt that he had a musical instrument, part of which broke and part was eaten by a slave. He said: You will be enabled to repent, because the loss of the instrument is indicative of that, and that instrument was birds with beautiful voices, some of which will die and some will be eaten by the cat, because the cat is a slave. And that is what happened.
