The previous definition of literal predication used the expression “ʿinda al-mutakallim fī al-ẓāhir”: according to the speaker's apparent standpoint. The same interpretive care applies here.
If the speaker manifestly transfers the action to an associated element, figurative predication is plausible. But if someone genuinely regards that element as the real doer, a listener's judgment that the belief is false does not automatically turn the sentence into rhetorical figurative usage.
In “أَنْبَتَ الرَّبِيعُ الْبَقْلَ” (spring caused the plants to grow), is spring being mentioned as a related cause, or believed to be the independent producer? Context and apparent intent matter.