وَالطَّرِيقُ صَامِتٌ؛ لَا يُسْمَعُ إِلَّا وَقْعُ خُطَاهُ.
The road was silent; only his footsteps could be heard.
The first clause supplies a circumstantial, lightly personified setting; the second restricts audible sound. A strong analysis begins with what is structurally clear, then turns to the figurative reading and the combined effect.
Where taxonomies of metaphor differ, explaining the implied comparison, what is omitted, what attribute remains and the contextual clue is more reliable than insisting on one unargued label.