[3][4] Soon thereafter he was obtained by Bankes,[1] who named him after the morocco leather from which contemporary saddles were made,[1] and jocularly addressed him as "seignior" (señor).

[2] According to modern English physician and writer Jan Bondeson, "Marocco was a small, muscular horse with remarkable litheness and agility; he also proved particularly intelligent and easy to educate.

"[1] Bankes sold his possessions and used the money to purchase silver horseshoes for Marocco, then moved to London to work at inn-yard theatres.

[1] According to Thomas Nashe, Bankes had Marocco's tail bobbed: "Wiser was our Brother Bankes of these latter daies, who made his iugling horse a Cut, for feare if at anie time hee should foyst [defecate], the stinke sticking in his thicke bushie taile might be noysome to his Auditors.

[1] He could pull out particular audience members—such as people wearing spectacles—on Bankes's command;[1] he could distinguish between colors, such as green and violet (horses are only partially colorblind).

[1] By 1593, John Donne had written: But to a graue man, he doth moue no more Than the wise politique horse would heretofore, Or thou, O Elephant, or Ape, wilt doe, When any names the k[ing] of Spaine to you.

[1] In 1601, perhaps to fight the growing competition of other animal trainers,[1] Bankes and Marocco ascended over a thousand steps to the rooftop of the then-flat St Paul's Cathedral and performed the act.

A Scottish historian Patrick Anderson wrote, "There came an Englishman to Edinburgh, with a chestain-coloured naig, which he called Marroco.

This yeare and against the assise tyme on Master Banckes, a Staffordshire gentile, brought into this town of Salop a white horsse whiche wolld doe woonderfull and strange thinges, as thesse,—wold in a company or prese tell howe many peeces of money by hys foote were in a mans purce; also, yf the partie his master wolld name any man beinge hyd never so secret in the company, wold fatche hym owt with his mowthe, either naming hym the veriest knave in the company, or what cullerid coate he hadd; he pronowncid further to his horse and said, Sirha, there be two baylyves in the towne, the one of them bid mee welcom unto this towne and usid me in frindly maner; I wold have the goe to hym and gyve hym thanckes for mee; and he wold goe truly to the right baylyf that did so use hys sayd master as he did in the sight of a number of people, unto Master Baylyffe Sherar, and bowyd unto hym in makinge curchey withe hys foote in sutche maner as he coullde, withe suche strange feates for sutche a beast to doe, that many people judgid that it were impossible to be don except he had a famyliar or don by the arte of magicke.

[4] In March 1601, Bankes, Marocco, and their musician travelled to Paris and moved into the Lion d'Argent Inn on Rue Saint-Jacques.

[1] Bankes was given a last show to redeem himself, and during the performance Marocco knelt down before a cross held by one of the priests of the city, "proving" he was not of the devil.

[1] James VI and I mentioned Bankes and his dancing horse during The Masque of Indian and China Knights at Hampton Court on 1 January 1604.