“Asad yuqātil” — if “lion” refers to a brave man, the source noun is spoken: the pattern is explicit metaphor.
“Al-mawt ka-l-sabuʿ” — the two sides are explicitly compared: ordinary simile.
“Aẓfār al-maniyyah” — the target is stated, the source is withheld, and a distinctive source attribute occurs: the main implicit/imaginative example.
“Death is merciless” — a strong predicate on its own does not necessarily establish the particular imagined claws of a predator.
The classification depends not on vivid vocabulary alone but on what comparison source is activated, and by what linguistic route.