Frank J. Wilstach, comp. A Dictionary of Similes. 1916.

Sift

Sifted fine as flour.
—Charles Dickens

Sifted, drifted, like the sun of sands in wastes Arabian.
—Andrew Lang

Sifted like great snowdrifts o’er the landscape.
—Henry W. Longfellow

Sift you as wheat.
—New Testament