These unicorn trivia questions and answers cover what old books, tapestries and coats of arms say: the ancient writers, tapestries and treasures, the horn, heraldry and Scotland, and the qilin and other one-horned beasts.
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Unicorn trivia questions from Ctesias to Scotland
The first round is the unicorn of Greek and Roman natural history, described as a wild ass and at times mistaken for a rhinoceros. The second hangs the tapestries of New York and Paris. The third asks the alicorn, the royal arms and the Scottish coins called unicorns.
For a legends round or a class on heraldry
Each tap on a choice brings the answer, a one-line reason and a link to the article. For a class, the questions print as a sheet and the answer key prints apart.
Questions and answers
What easy unicorn trivia questions can a host open with?
What is another name for a unicorn horn? Which animal was the unicorn believed to be the natural enemy of? In heraldry, what is attached to the collar of a unicorn? The answers are an alicorn, the lion and a broken chain.
Is this a pack for a unicorn birthday party?
It suits older children and adults who like history. The questions come from old books, tapestries and coats of arms, not from toys or shows, and about half are marked hard.
How do I know the answers are right?
The answers were read on October 3, 2026 in one of three English Wikipedia articles, Unicorn, Unicorn horn or Qilin, linked under the question. Old beliefs about the horn are asked as history, not as remedies.
A Greek traveler of the 6th century described a unicorn from four bronze figures in the palace of which king?Answer: The King of Ethiopia. Source: Wikipedia: Unicorn
A one-horned creature is the most common image on the stamp seals of which Bronze Age civilization?Answer: The Indus Valley civilization. Source: Wikipedia: Unicorn
According to Strabo, where were there one-horned horses with heads like stags?Answer: In the Caucasus. Source: Wikipedia: Unicorn
Aristotle names two one-horned animals: the so-called Indian ass and which antelope?Answer: The oryx. Source: Wikipedia: Unicorn
Around 400 BCE Ctesias wrote that princes had the horn made into what, as a guard against poison?Answer: Drinking cups. Source: Wikipedia: Unicorn horn
As which kind of animal did Ctesias describe unicorns?Answer: Wild asses. Source: Wikipedia: Unicorn
In which country was Ctesias living when he gathered what he wrote about unicorns?Answer: Persia. Source: Wikipedia: Unicorn
In which distant land did Greek writers of natural history believe unicorns lived?Answer: India. Source: Wikipedia: Unicorn
The monoceros of Pliny has the head of a stag and the feet of which animal?Answer: The elephant. Source: Wikipedia: Unicorn
The old name cartazonos may be a form of the Arabic karkadann. What does karkadann mean?Answer: Rhinoceros. Source: Wikipedia: Unicorn
The one-horned animal of the Indus seals has a body more like which animal than a horse?Answer: A cow. Source: Wikipedia: Unicorn
Pliny the Elder described a very fierce animal with a single black horn. What did he call it?Answer: The monoceros. Source: Wikipedia: Unicorn
What did the ancient accounts say about the meat of the unicorn?Answer: It was too bitter to eat. Source: Wikipedia: Unicorn
Which three colors does the description by Ctesias give?Answer: White, red and black. Source: Wikipedia: Unicorn
Which traveler wrote of unicorns scarcely smaller than elephants that wallowed in mud, and was really describing a rhinoceros?Answer: Marco Polo. Source: Wikipedia: Unicorn
Who gave the earliest description of the unicorn, in a book called Indika?Answer: Ctesias. Source: Wikipedia: Unicorn
Tapestries, treasures and legends 18
About when was The Hunt of the Unicorn woven in the Low Countries?Answer: About 1500. Source: Wikipedia: Unicorn
According to legend, a horn now in a Paris museum was a gift to Charlemagne in 807 from which ruler?Answer: Harun al-Rashid, Caliph of Baghdad. Source: Wikipedia: Unicorn horn
Copies of the unicorn tapestries were woven for permanent display in which castle?Answer: Stirling Castle. Source: Wikipedia: Unicorn
How many hangings make up the late Gothic series The Hunt of the Unicorn?Answer: Seven. Source: Wikipedia: Unicorn
In a hunting trick described by Shakespeare scholars, the hunter steps aside and the charging unicorn drives its horn into what?Answer: A tree. Source: Wikipedia: Unicorn
In the art of the last thousand years or so, the coat of the unicorn is usually what?Answer: White. Source: Wikipedia: Unicorn
In the last panel of The Hunt of the Unicorn, called The Unicorn in Captivity, to which tree is the unicorn chained?Answer: A pomegranate tree. Source: Wikipedia: Unicorn
In the Middle Ages the horns changed hands for up to how many times their weight in gold?Answer: Eleven. Source: Wikipedia: Unicorn horn
In which city do the tapestries of The Hunt of the Unicorn hang today?Answer: New York City. Source: Wikipedia: Unicorn
In which Flemish city is a horn eight feet long on show?Answer: Bruges. Source: Wikipedia: Unicorn horn
In which play by Shakespeare is a unicorn told that pride and wrath would confound it?Answer: Timon of Athens. Source: Wikipedia: Unicorn
The kings of which country had a throne made with the horns?Answer: Denmark. Source: Wikipedia: Unicorn horn
Pope Clement VII gave King Francis I a horn two cubits long in Marseille in October 1533. Whose wedding was it?Answer: Catherine de' Medici's. Source: Wikipedia: Unicorn horn
The scabbard and hilt of whose sword were made with the horn?Answer: Charles the Bold. Source: Wikipedia: Unicorn horn
The six tapestries known as The Lady with the Unicorn hang in a museum in which city?Answer: Paris. Source: Wikipedia: Unicorn
Which artist wrote in a notebook how hunters take a unicorn that has fallen asleep?Answer: Leonardo da Vinci. Source: Wikipedia: Unicorn
Which book of Late Antiquity, the forerunner of the medieval bestiary, spread the best-known story of the unicorn?Answer: Physiologus. Source: Wikipedia: Unicorn
Which French artist engraved six prints on the hunt of the unicorn in the 1540s?Answer: Jean Duvet. Source: Wikipedia: Unicorn
The horn, heraldry and Scotland 17
A carved unicorn on the pillar of a Scottish mercat cross showed that the town was what?Answer: A royal burgh. Source: Wikipedia: Unicorn
At the court of the King of France, what was poisoned food supposed to do when tested with the horn?Answer: Grow hot and start to smoke. Source: Wikipedia: Unicorn horn
The crest of which Scottish clan bears the head of a unicorn?Answer: Clan Cunningham. Source: Wikipedia: Unicorn
Cups said to be of alicorn were usually made of ivory from the elephant or from which other animal?Answer: The walrus. Source: Wikipedia: Unicorn
False alicorn powder was sold in Europe until as late as which year?Answer: 1741. Source: Wikipedia: Unicorn
From which century did the unicorn become popular in heraldry?Answer: The 15th. Source: Wikipedia: Unicorn
In heraldry a unicorn usually wears a collar. What is attached to it?Answer: A broken chain. Source: Wikipedia: Unicorn
In which centuries were the gold coins called the unicorn and the half-unicorn used in Scotland?Answer: The 15th and 16th. Source: Wikipedia: Unicorn
The powers claimed for the horn may be compared with those of which other object of Renaissance medicine?Answer: The bezoar stone. Source: Wikipedia: Unicorn horn
Since the union of which year have a unicorn and a lion supported the royal arms of the United Kingdom?Answer: 1707. Source: Wikipedia: Unicorn
The unicorn was believed to be the natural enemy of which animal?Answer: The lion. Source: Wikipedia: Unicorn
Until which century could chips and dust of the horn be bought from apothecaries?Answer: The 18th. Source: Wikipedia: Unicorn horn
What is another name for a unicorn horn?Answer: An alicorn. Source: Wikipedia: Unicorn horn
Where were sections of the horns later put on display?Answer: In cabinets of curiosities. Source: Wikipedia: Unicorn horn
Which Danish physician determined in 1638 where the horns really came from?Answer: Ole Worm. Source: Wikipedia: Unicorn
Who examined beliefs about the horn at length in his Pseudodoxia Epidemica of 1646?Answer: Sir Thomas Browne. Source: Wikipedia: Unicorn
Who wrote a treatise of 1573 on the unicorn and the properties of its horn?Answer: Andrea Bacci. Source: Wikipedia: Unicorn horn
The qilin and other one-horned beasts 18
According to legend, whose birth was foretold by the arrival of a qilin?Answer: Confucius. Source: Wikipedia: Qilin
According to the dictionary Shuowen Jiezi, qi denotes the male. What does lin denote?Answer: The female. Source: Wikipedia: Qilin
According to the writer Guo Pu, what was the Bo-horse able to do?Answer: Walk on water. Source: Wikipedia: Unicorn
The Bo-horse of the Shanhaijing has one horn, a white body and the tail of which animal?Answer: An ox. Source: Wikipedia: Unicorn
By which name is the qilin known in Thailand?Answer: Gilen. Source: Wikipedia: Qilin
Compared with Chinese art, how does Japanese art tend to show the kirin?Answer: More like a deer. Source: Wikipedia: Qilin
The earliest mention of the qilin is a poem in which collection?Answer: The Classic of Poetry. Source: Wikipedia: Qilin
In Korea the girin was one of four divine creatures. Which were the other three?Answer: The dragon, the phoenix and the turtle. Source: Wikipedia: Qilin
In the Qilin dance, what does the qilin spit out after the vegetable?Answer: A jade book. Source: Wikipedia: Qilin
Legends tell that a qilin appeared in the garden of which legendary ruler?Answer: The Yellow Emperor. Source: Wikipedia: Qilin
The movements of the Qilin dance mimic which animals?Answer: Cats and tigers. Source: Wikipedia: Qilin
One description gives the qilin the body of a deer, the head of a lion and scales that are what?Answer: Green. Source: Wikipedia: Unicorn
The qilin of Chinese mythology is said to appear at the arrival or death of whom?Answer: A sage or an illustrious ruler. Source: Wikipedia: Qilin
The Spring and Autumn Annals say that a lin was captured in which year?Answer: 481 BCE. Source: Wikipedia: Qilin
To which Chinese city did the fleet of Zheng He bring back two giraffes?Answer: Nanjing. Source: Wikipedia: Qilin
Which kind of feet are qilin always shown with?Answer: Cloven hooves. Source: Wikipedia: Qilin
Which people traditionally perform the Qilin dance?Answer: The Hakka. Source: Wikipedia: Qilin
Word for word, what is the modern Chinese term for the Western unicorn?Answer: One-horned beast. Source: Wikipedia: Qilin