Under the explanation developed here, implicit metaphor consists in stating the target while leaving its likeness to a source mentally unstated. Imaginative metaphor consists in assigning to that target a characteristic especially associated with the source.
In “the claws of death,” death is stated, the predator is unspoken, and claws signal that source. In “the tongue of a condition,” the condition is stated, a speaking person is implicit, and a tongue supplies the sign. One conveys destructive force, the other the testimony of circumstances.
Earlier rhetorical accounts and al-Sakkākī's interpretation differ over exactly where the borrowing resides. The following material develops those differences more closely. The central result here is to distinguish the structure of the image from the lexical meaning of each overt term.