muse

nouns

the source of an artist's inspiration
"Euterpe was his muse"
muse
is a type of (narrower)
anything that provides inspiration for later work
germ, seed, source

verbs

reflect deeply on a subject
"I mulled over the events of the afternoon"; "philosophers have speculated on the question of God for thousands of years"; "The scientist must stop to observe and start to excogitate"
chew over, contemplate, excogitate, meditate, mull, mull over, muse, ponder, reflect, ruminate, speculate, think over
is derived from
muser
is derived from
musing