Is it possible to rotate a drawable in the xml description?

I could rotate in XML:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<rotate xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" 
        android:fromDegrees="90"
        android:toDegrees="90"
        android:pivotX="50%"
        android:pivotY="50%"
        android:drawable="@drawable/mainmenu_background">
</rotate>

The fromDegrees is important.

Basically this is a rotate animation defined in XML. With fromDegrees you define the initial rotated state. The toDegrees is the final rotated state of the drawable in the animation sequence but can be anything if you don't want to use animation.

I don't think it allocates resources for animation as it doesn't have to be loaded as animation. As a drawable it is rendered as it's initial state and should be put in the drawable resource folder. To use it as an animation you should put it in anim resource folder and can start the animation like this (just an example):

Animation rotation = AnimationUtils.loadAnimation(this, R.anim.rotation);
rotation.setRepeatCount(Animation.INFINITE);
myView.startAnimation(rotation);

I could rotate left arrow right in XML as:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<rotate xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:fromDegrees="180"
    android:toDegrees="0"
    android:drawable="@drawable/left">
</rotate>

Attached image for reference.