Grav lensing: multiple images as opposed to a circle, how is that possible?

Yes, it's time to ask some inane layperson's questions again... :-)

I'm now wondering how gravitational lensing can conspire to (apparently)
_not_ be unidirectional.

E.g., in the case of "Einstein's cross" four images of a distant quasar
appears, singling out those four directions, as opposed to a smeared-out
circle of light around the object doing the lensing.

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