Abd al-Rahman I
Medallion One displays a scene of two men gathering eggs from falcon nests, which is popularly seen as a symbol for Umayyad power or legitimacy. Scholars have claimed that the synchronism between the falcon and Umayyad power was a current and strong symbol due to such metaphors found in poetry and art during that time period. In particular, ‘Abd al-Rahman I al-Dakhil, founder of the Umayyads in al-Andalus, was famously named “the falcon of the Quraysh” by an Abbasid caliph.