The coat of arms of Turkmenistan was created after Turkmenistan gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. The eight-point green starburst (known as the star of Rub El Hizb (۞), a symbol of Islam, to which a majority of Turkmen profess) with golden edges features in its center a red circular disc which carries sheaves of wheat, five carpet guls, and centered upon that a smaller blue circle with a lifelike (rather than heraldized) depiction of an Akhal-Teke horse, a source of pride for the Turkmen people. A variant of the emblem, which included different colors and rounded, was used from 1992 until 2003. 