Morthoron, I too thought of the story of Abraham and Isaac.
I see a personally redemptive story with Tolkien himself. I do believe that I have read how Tolkien saw Aule as a bit of himself. Could Tolkien have had doubts about the legitimacy of his need to subcreate? If so, I see this story as a possible working out of those doubts. And then we have the famous poem in which Tolkien tells C.S. Lewis how we are dethroned but still make in the image in which we're made.
I'm not sure this bears out in Tolkien's life story, but it could have, might have.
