The Obdurate Route

The motive in the narrative is excess in doctrine, creed, or dogma.

In this view of the motives of Satan in refusing homage or worship of humanity, there is an insistence on advocacy of a particular belief structure. When Satan looks on Adam, he sees a clay, dirt, or grime edifice, and is prepared to insist to the rest of the host or even God the primacy of his own belief over theirs.

To give obeisance or prostration to mankind would be a singular act of idolatry, viewing as divine or mirroring divinity in something far from it.

On this view, Satan is the original fomenter, ultraist, sectarian, or usurper.

The key difference between the Obdurate and the Illuminated view turns on how the idea of prostration or obeisance is linked to humanity. Prostration or obeisance, as it is viewed in the Illuminated view, overtly subordinates the self to divinity, while in the Obdurate view, divinity is covertly subordinated to the self. The belief that one has the right creed is so firm that the justification for rejecting prostration or obeisance is that doctrinal coherence supersedes interpersonal dissonance.

External links and references:

Murad: Commentary on the Eleventh Contentions, No. 4; he contends Iblis "refused to bow to Adam, seeing only a terracotta statue."