a horse” and “the son of a donkey” figurative. Likewise, if “the daughter of a human” is said, this does not make our saying “the daughter of a horse” figurative. Similarly, if “a human head” is said first, this does not make our saying “a horse’s head” figurative. The same applies to other possessive constructions, such as “his hand” or “his foot.”

If it is said, “The usage is literal when the word is attached to an animal,” the reply is: there is no more reason to regard this as the literal usage than to regard “head” as literal when attached to a human. Moreover, it may be attached to small animals that most people cannot even picture and that have never occurred to the vast majority of speakers of the language. If its use in these cases is said to be literal, why should it not also be literal in “the head of the mountain,” “the head of the road,” and “the head of the spring”?

Likewise, expressions attached to a human—referring to his limbs, offspring, or dwellings—have counterparts attached to other things, including inanimate objects. Thus one says “the head of the mountain,” “the head of the spring,” “the snout of the mountain,” meaning its nose, “the mouth of the valley,” “the belly of the valley,” “the back of the mountain,” and “the belly of the earth” and “its back.” The forms with an added alif—zāhir (“outward”) and bātin (“inward”)—are also used of many things. In every case, zāhir refers to what appears and becomes evident, while bātin refers to what lies within and is hidden. The human back is called zahr because it is outward, and the human belly is called batn because it is inward.

If it is said that this usage is literal and that one figurative, this is no more justified than the reverse.

Furthermore, some nouns have been used independently by speakers of the language, such as “human” and similar words, and may then be used with the qualification supplied by a possessive construction. Examples include “the human of the eye” (its pupil), “the needle of the forearm” (its pointed bony end), and similar expressions. Even supposing that language does contain literal and figurative usage, some have claimed that this is figurative. But this is mistaken, for figurative usage is the use of an expression in a sense other than the one for which it was originally assigned. Here, however, the expression has not been used on its own; rather, it has been combined with another expression, thereby acquiring a distinct designation through the possessive construction.