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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/48070
License name: CC BY-SA 4.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

It's perfectly fine to leave details up to the reader's imagination. But **those comparisons are neither doing work for you nor for the reader**. They have the look and feel of descriptions, but they are empty.

Let's look at some ways of potentially using this technique:

1. 

> "The trees were full of _lillahi_ birds."

I think this is okay --the reader gets an impression of a tree full of birds, he or she may not to know what those birds look like (although _you_ should know, just in case some detail from that becomes useful to you).

1. 

> "She reminded me of the lithe, blue _lillahi_ birds that used to flock around my mother's garden.

I think this is also fine. There's enough description and context here that the comparison is actually doing work, but it's subtle and in the background, it doesn't call attention to itself.

1. 

> "She reminded me of a _lillahi_ bird.

This is where it gets problematic for me. "Lillahi" is a completely empty word for us, it doesn't mean anything. So the reader isn't getting any more information than if you said "she reminded me of a bird." That's just lazy writing. (As John Wu noted in the comments, even this might have a purpose, early in the book, to indicate the exoticism of the narrator, or setting. You don't want to abuse it however.)

Original score: 35