Enki warned Utnapishtim of the coming flood by speaking to the reed wall of his hut — a legal fiction to circumvent Enlil's oath of secrecy — allowing him to build a boat and survive (Atrahasis; Epic of Gilgamesh).
Enlil decreed the Great Flood to destroy humanity, whose noise kept him from sleep. Enki defied the decree by warning Utnapishtim through a reed wall, and when the waters receded and Enlil found a survivor, he was furious — but Enki's rebuke moved him to grant Utnapishtim and his wife immortality.
After the great Flood, the gods granted Utnapishtim and his wife immortality and settled them in Dilmun, the distant paradise at the edge of the world where Gilgamesh would one day seek them out.
Gilgamesh journeyed to the ends of the earth to find Utnapishtim, the sole mortal granted immortality after surviving the Great Flood. Utnapishtim tested him with sleeplessness and revealed the secret of the Plant of Youth.
Utnapishtim, warned by Enki through a reed wall, built the great boat that carried his family, craftsmen, and the seed of all living creatures through seven days of the Great Flood — and when the waters receded and the gods smelled his sacrifice, Enlil granted him immortality among the gods.
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