Tables can be converted to facts and rules: 
% cat female
Female
------
michele
beth
% cat male
kirk
rod
% cat parent
Parent	Child
------	-----
michele	rod
kirk	rod
% cat isa
Name	Isa
----	---
rod	human
human	mammal
mammal	animal
animal	lifeform
% tabletofact female male parent isa > fact
% cat fact
female(michele).
female(beth).
male(kirk).
male(rod).
parent(michele,rod).
parent(kirk,rod).
isa(rod,human).
isa(human,mammal).
isa(mammal,animal).
isa(animal,lifeform).
% cat ruletable
True		If
----		--
mother(X,Y)	female(X) , parent(X,Y)
father(X,Y)	male(X) , parent(X,Y)
son(X,Y)	male(X) , parent(Y,X)
isa(X,Y)	isa(X,Z) , isa(Z,Y)
% tabletorule ruletable > rule
% cat rule
mother(X,Y) :- female(X) , parent(X,Y).
father(X,Y) :- male(X) , parent(X,Y).
son(X,Y) :- male(X) , parent(Y,X).
isa(X,Y) :- isa(X,Z) , isa(Z,Y)


% prolog
consult ("fact").
yes
consult ("rule").
yes
With this database of facts and rules, you can ask Prolog questions about motherhood and fatherhood, as well as questions like is rod a lifeform? Prolog will answer yes, showing the limits of this approach. Prolog uses depth-first searching which requires it to backtrack. searchtree is a breadth-first goal-oriented search without memory limitations that finds all of the children at each level of a tree. 

% [ searchtree isa rod lifeform Name Isa ] && echo yes
yes