«كما طينت بالفدن السياعا»
As though the great buildings had been plastered with clay.
The poetic expression illustrates a comparison framed from an unexpected direction. By changing which object is treated as the apparent standard, the speaker alters the hearer’s picture of the scene.
Simile and qalb (inversion) are not synonyms. Simile shows a shared quality between two things; inversion changes the expected direction in which their relation is expressed. Both can operate in one passage.
The source closes this discussion by noting the importance of subtle appropriateness in assessing inversion. The next separate topic is the states of the predicate (aḥwāl al-musnad).