This illustration was published in 'Once a Week', 1 December 1860, p. 630. Illustrating the poem 'Temüjin' by Henry Thoby Prinsep (1792-1878). Temüjin was the fifteenth-century hero who became the Mongol emperor Gengis Khan (1162-1227).

Bronkhurst cites a preparatory sketch in a private collection (D187).