The tradition of illustrating composite animals stretches as far back as the early Buddhist manuscripts of Central Asia. While examples such as this one are known from earlier periods of Persian art, they gained popularity toward the end of the sixteenth century. The composition of this painting, with a diminuitive page leading the horse, a gold-edged blue saddlecloth, and the prince holding a hawk, is similar to an illustration in a copy of the Hadiqat al-Haqiqi in the Museum of Fine Art, Boston (acc.no.09.324). The manuscript from which that illustration comes is dated AH 981/1573 AD.

Another example of a composite horse sold in these rooms, 27 October 2022, lot 40.