Technical terms such as the stated side, the target, and the source of comparison must be read according to their specific relations. In one example the stated noun is the source; in another the target is stated while the source remains implicit.
في الحمام أسد — “lion” is overt; a human may be intended.
أنشبت المنية أظفارها — “death” is overt; the predator is inferred through “claws.”
Both involve rhetorical association, but the relation between the word actually spoken and the unspoken source image is not the same.