The icon The Abalak Virgin Mary of the Sign got its name from the place where it was worshiped: the Tatar settlement of Abalak near the city of Tobolsk in Siberia. According to the legend, the first icon of Abalak was painted by Archdeacon Matfey Martynov. There exists a legend about the emergence of the icon. A widow Mary, who lived near the Abalak graveyard, had an apparition: an icon of the Virgin Mary of the Sign with the image of St. Mary of Egypt and St. Nicholas. The image of the Virgin Mary told the woman that a church in honor of the icon should be built there. Soon the cathedral was built. Matfey Martynov painted the icon for the cathedral, and the icon later became popular as miracle-working. The tale of the first icon of Abalak, appeared in the second half of the 17th century, describes around 130 miracles, one of which says about the healing of a man from Yaroslavl.

The original icon has not survived. There were a lot of replicas in many cities: copies that painters made for other cathedrals. An 18th-century replica is exhibited in the Yaroslavl Museum. Iconography of that time period was influenced by secular fine arts: the image was painted in the baroque style that was typical for early that century. 

Images of the Virgin Mary and Baby Jesus are extensional and elaborated in sculptural detail. All pleats, ornaments, precious embroidery of the Virgin Mary’s garments are finely elaborated. The icon is painted in warm colors, and the central part and the cartouches are framed by tulips, dahlias and irises.

The icon is based on one of the oldest iconographic subjects: The Sign. The hands of the Virgin Mary are devotionally raised, the Holy Baby is depicted in a circle located on her chest. On both sides of the Virgin Mary the painter depicted two figures: St. Nicholas the Wonderworker and St. Mary of Egypt. This is exactly the version that presented itself to the widow in the 17th century. In the background and in the margins of the icon board there are cartouches (scrolls) with texts of the Akathistos, i.e. the hymn dedicated to the Virgin Mary. The icon used to be ornamented with two chased silver crowns that have not survived to this day. The icon used to be kept in the famous Church of Elijah the Prophet, a Yaroslavl architectural memorial monument of the 17th century.