Mirs, plural amrās, denotes strong cords or ropes. Kattān is flax, a plant fiber used for thread and cordage. Jandal is rock, while ṣumm highlights the stones' hardness and resistance.
The stars are what is compared; the scene of objects lashed to unyielding rocks is the comparator. The point is not an identical physical shape but stillness and resistance to movement.
Previously, night resembled sea waves and then an enormous body. It now resembles a sky immobilized by ropes. These different sensory images render a single experience—agonizingly slow passage of time—through several distinct visual mechanisms.