[4]: 34–35  "Oye Como Va" was a hit by Tito Puente in the early 1960s and the group played it live regularly, as they realized it was good for audiences to dance to.

[4]: 35 "Incident at Neshabur" was co-written by Santana and his friend Alberto Gianquinto, who played piano on the track.

Carlos Santana reportedly noticed it in a magazine and asked that it be on the cover of the band's upcoming album.

[6][8][9] Klarwein went on to design album artwork for many notable artists, including Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, Earth, Wind & Fire, and Gregg Allman.

[20] Rock critic Robert Christgau, in one of his capsule reviews in The Village Voice, at the time of the album's release, gave it a rating of only C+, which denotes "a not disreputable performance, most likely a failed experiment or a pleasant piece of hackwork".

[11] Abraxas was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress and was selected for preservation in their National Recording Registry in 2015.