What was described by Abu'l Fazl as 'magical art', which had the power to make inanimate objects look as if they possessed life?

Paintings

Paintings served not only to enhance the beauty of a book, but were believed to possess special powers of communicating ideas about the kingdom and the power of kings in ways that the written medium could not. The historian Abu’l Fazl described painting as a “magical art”: in his view it had the power to make inanimate objects look as if they possessed life.