The present study examines Mohammad Reza Pahlavi’s objectives in financing the mirrorwork of the shrine of Imam Ali through the use of the assets of Astan Quds Razavi. The research adopts a descriptive-analytical method and is organized on the basis of an unpublished documentary collection entitled “Payment of the Expenses of the Mirrorwork of the Holy Shrine of Hazrat Ali from the Revenues of Astan Quds.” The central question of the article is this: why did a monarch whose lifestyle had distanced itself from religious norms finance the mirrorwork of the sanctuary of Imam Ali from the revenues of Astan Quds? The findings show that, during the period 1950-1952, in terms of the balance of power, this was one of the most difficult phases for the legitimacy and public acceptance of the Second Pahlavi monarchy. The Mosaddeq government and the atmosphere generated by the Oil Nationalization Movement constrained the Shah’s political room for maneuver. In such a context, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi turned, in a symbolic act, to the mirrorwork of the shrine of Imam Ali, seeking thereby to reconstruct his relationship with Shi’ism and to create the conditions for fashioning the image of a Shi’i king in both the national and transnational spheres. In this process, Astan Quds, with its relatively accumulated wealth, distinctive economic structure, and institutional position, whose custodianship was defined in connection with the monarchy, became the institution of choice, and it financed the greater part of the costs associated with this undertaking. Through the channel of a waqf-based institution, the Second Pahlavi sought both to perform an overt act in support of the most sacred Shi’i site and, at the symbolic level, to reconstruct the image of a “Shi’i king.” This decision could also serve as a reminder to the clerical establishment and to the religious strata of public opinion that the most important Shi’i endowment institution occupied an effective place within the network of royal power. the Second Pahlavi aimed to transform an artistic-religious project into an instrument for repairing and reconstructing the image of the monarchy, that is, for producing legitimacy and public acceptance.