How do we differentiate in Islam if an object has a soul or not?

I was going to the below question https://islam.stackexchange.com/questions/48345/is-it-permissible-to-paint-cityscapes-and-scenery where one of our esteemed & extremely knowledgeable member stated that **" mainly plants in Arabic are regarded as inanimate and anything which is inanimate is regarded as not having a soul or alike"** I have always thought that any living organism be it bacteria, virus, plants, insects, birds, mammals, dinosaurs, synapsids, therapsids etc had souls. Infact, I believe (no proof) that even angels & jinns have souls as every living creature will taste death and it is the extraction of the soul which determines the death of the individual. Did the tree stump not cry when the Prophet began preaching from an elevated platform instead of upon it? Did Mount Uhud not tremble when the Prophet along with the future Caliphs walk upon it? Is my understanding wrong w.r.t the Islamic perspective?