The bond between Persian literature and miniature painting, as two synergistic domains, is predicated upon fundamental commonalities in narrative systems, characterization, and meaning-making; a connection that, throughout the history of Iranian art, emerges from the intersection of the artist’s abstract creativity and the era’s socio-cultural and aesthetic paradigms. Within this context, the narrative of “The Meeting of Zal and Rudabeh” from Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh (due to the presence of profound racial, social, and emotional oppositions) provides a rich arena for exploring the mechanisms of contrast in both text and image. This research aims to examine the functional role of the rhetorical device of “contrast” within the literary narrative and to analyze its semiotic-aesthetic representation in the illustrated Shahnameh of Shah Tahmasp. The primary research question investigates how contrast is manifested and through what mechanisms of convergence and divergence it operates between word and image, while the sub-questions focus on identifying signifying visual elements and the aesthetic modes of representing this contrast in the miniature. Adopting a fundamental research design based on a descriptive-analytical and comparative approach, this study employs systematic observation and qualitative analysis of data extracted from library resources and written documents. The findings reveal that contrast in this narrative transcends a mere stylistic tool, serving instead as a fundamental mechanism for semantic organization and narrative progression. In the “Meeting of Zal and Rudabeh” miniature, contrast is articulated through a system of visual signs (including color, composition, spacing, attire, and the positioning of figures) and culminates in aesthetic richness by generating visual tensions and a dialectic between the “familiar” and the “unfamiliar.” Ultimately, this study demonstrates that in miniature painting, contrast facilitates the transformation of abstract concepts into tangible visual signs, thereby enhancing narrative legibility and producing multi-layered, coherent meanings for the viewer.