diff --git a/doc/usage/configuration.rst b/doc/usage/configuration.rst
index 71b29324d16..3464af8a13c 100644
--- a/doc/usage/configuration.rst
+++ b/doc/usage/configuration.rst
@@ -1070,6 +1070,12 @@ that use Sphinx's HTMLWriter class.
       This can now be a string to select the actual text of the link.
       Previously, only boolean values were accepted.
 
+.. confval:: html_add_permalinks_html
+
+   The text for the permalink can also be specified as an HTML string. If both
+   ``html_add_permalinks`` and ``html_add_permalinks_html`` are specified,
+   ``html_add_permalinks_html`` wins.
+
 .. confval:: html_sidebars
 
    Custom sidebar templates, must be a dictionary that maps document names to
diff --git a/sphinx/builders/html/__init__.py b/sphinx/builders/html/__init__.py
index 626f173f543..32405639b28 100644
--- a/sphinx/builders/html/__init__.py
+++ b/sphinx/builders/html/__init__.py
@@ -1202,6 +1202,7 @@ def setup(app: Sphinx) -> Dict[str, Any]:
     app.add_config_value('html_additional_pages', {}, 'html')
     app.add_config_value('html_domain_indices', True, 'html', [list])
     app.add_config_value('html_add_permalinks', '¶', 'html')
+    app.add_config_value('html_add_permalinks_html', None, 'html')
     app.add_config_value('html_use_index', True, 'html')
     app.add_config_value('html_split_index', False, 'html')
     app.add_config_value('html_copy_source', True, 'html')
diff --git a/sphinx/writers/html.py b/sphinx/writers/html.py
index deed9891c1a..b487554b11c 100644
--- a/sphinx/writers/html.py
+++ b/sphinx/writers/html.py
@@ -95,6 +95,8 @@ def __init__(self, document: nodes.document, builder: Builder) -> None:
         if not isinstance(self.permalink_text, str):
             self.permalink_text = '¶' if self.permalink_text else ''
         self.permalink_text = self.encode(self.permalink_text)
+        if self.config.html_add_permalinks_html:
+            self.permalink_text = self.config.html_add_permalinks_html
         self.secnumber_suffix = self.config.html_secnumber_suffix
         self.param_separator = ''
         self.optional_param_level = 0
diff --git a/sphinx/writers/html5.py b/sphinx/writers/html5.py
index 9cbd50f6c07..c982d52e443 100644
--- a/sphinx/writers/html5.py
+++ b/sphinx/writers/html5.py
@@ -69,6 +69,8 @@ def __init__(self, document: nodes.document, builder: Builder) -> None:
         if not isinstance(self.permalink_text, str):
             self.permalink_text = '¶' if self.permalink_text else ''
         self.permalink_text = self.encode(self.permalink_text)
+        if self.config.html_add_permalinks_html:
+            self.permalink_text = self.config.html_add_permalinks_html
         self.secnumber_suffix = self.config.html_secnumber_suffix
         self.param_separator = ''
         self.optional_param_level = 0