A reliable simile analysis proceeds in stages. First identify the two terms. Then examine the marker of comparison, whether expressed or omitted. Next determine the point of resemblance and whether it is sensory or conceptual, single or composite.
Example 1: “Zayd is brave like a lion” — Zayd and lion; the shared point is conceptual courage.
Example 2: “The face is red like a rose” — sensory terms; the shared feature is visible redness.
Example 3: dust and flashing swords compared with a night of falling stars — a composite visual configuration.
The next level develops the purposes of simile (أغراض التشبيه) and further divisions: not merely what the comparison contains, but what rhetorical effect it is meant to produce.