In this illumination, Wisdom appears as a woman, reflected in a hand mirror with moon-inscribed frame and cosmic elements in the corners. The reference is to chapter 7 of Wisdom of Solomon: “For she is a reflection of eternal light, a spotless mirror of the working of God.” Solomon prayed to God to send Wisdom to help him, and eternal Wisdom will attend Solomon and help him with his work.
Wisdom’s image is based on a photograph of a Palestinian woman, and is according to Susan Sink the only image inspired by an actual human face other than Adam and Eve. (The Art of The Saint John’s Bible, vol. 2, p. 37). The image was silk-screened onto the original vellum multiple times — at least four — in an “unforgiving” process (Sink, p. 37) that gives the artist a single chance to get things right. The two-page nature of the image made the arrangement much more difficult.
Sink describes Wisdom Woman’s face as “perfect:”
The crow’s feet around her eyes and the sparkle in those eyes emit more joy than her slight smile suggests. Like Wisdom, she is full of light. She has squinted into the sun, and she has looked hard at life, and she has laughed. The lines on her forehead show she has worried and given her full attention to the task at hand. Her smile is knowing, somewhat secretive, but also intimate — she will tell us her secret if we ask. (p. 38)
Take a closer look at the mirror’s round frame and you will notice another reference to the feminine, in the depiction of the moon’s 28-day cycle. The paintings in the mirror’s four corners are based on images from the Hubble telescope. The “wisdom tree” stamp in the margins, based on a piece of cloth from India that was embroidered and appliquéd with mirrors, appears throughout the Wisdom books and has been seen in previous displays such as Seven Pillars of Wisdom and Revelation Frontispiece.