Based on the analysis of unique medieval sources, the famous Russian orientalist Alexander Ignatenko traces the influence of the Mirror category on the development of Islamic speculative thought – philosophy, theology, theoretical mysticism, ethics. This category, which began to form in the Koran and Hadith (Islamic Tradition) and was in constant dynamics, became system-forming for Islam – determining not only this or that solution to specific philosophical and theological problems, but also the general direction and final results of the evolution of speculative thought in a culture in which there was a taboo on the depiction of living spiritual beings.