imagination (n.)
"faculty of the mind which forms and manipulates images," mid-14c., ymaginacion, from Old French imaginacion "concept, mental picture; hallucination," from Latin imaginationem (nominative imaginatio) "imagination, a fancy," noun of action from past participle stem of imaginari "to form an image of, represent"), from imago "an image, a likeness," from stem of imitari "to copy, imitate" (from PIE root
*aim- "to copy")
(
https://www.etymonline.com/word/imagination#etymonline_v_34543)
"image" doesn't come from "imagination", it's the other way around. Anyway in my mother tongue the word for imagination has no relation to that for image. Perhaps a lead to why we think differently about this.