Another division asks whether the conceptual referent involved in the metaphor can be realized through sense or intellect, or is instead an image constructed by imagination. This differs from the question of which side of the comparison is openly named.
Taḥqīqiyyah: the intended comparand has an intelligible or sensory mode of realization.
Takhyīliyyah: the wording produces a particular imagined configuration that need not exist in the external world as an object.
This classification concerns the ontological status of the represented content, not merely the grammatical presence of a target or source noun.