<a href="#"><icon> Link Text</a>

l('text','path',options)

print l('<span class="' . implode(" ",$link[options][attributes]["class"]) . '"></span> ' . $link["link_title"]

<li class="nav-item"><?php print l('<span class="' . implode(" ",$link[options][attributes]["class"]) . '"></span> ' . $link["link_title"],$link["link_path"],array('attributes'=> array('class'=>array($link[options][item_attributes]["class"], 'nav-link')),'html' => TRUE)); ?></li>