clause from a novel

[RealNNChan]

"Once upon a time, on an inhabited island on the shores of the Red Sea, there lived a Parsee from whose hat the rays of the sun were reflected in more-than-oriental splendor".
It's from How the rhinoceros got his skin by Rudyard Kipling
The first part of the sentence is easy. My confusion is about the clause part. Why "from" is used here? How do I understand the second part? An analysis of the second sentence could be really helpful. Thank you.

[Alan]

I'm not quite sure what it is that you don't understand here, but it means simply that the rays of the sun were reflected FROM his hat...