Archaeological finds suggest that they destroyed at least three fortresses made of earth and timber, including the ones at Doboka (now Dăbâca in Romania) and Sajósárvár (present-day Șirioara).

According to a popular legend, a "Cuman" warrior tried to escape from the battlefield, taking a Hungarian girl, but Duke Ladislaus defeated and killed him in single combat.

[7][2] The Pechenegs regularly invaded the Byzantine Empire from around 1026, suggesting a movement west from the lands east of the Dnieper to the region of the Lower Danube.

[8] The Byzantine historians John Skylitzes and George Kedrenos mention clashes between the Pechenegs and their eastern neighbors, the Ouzes in the 1040s.

[15] Coins minted for King Stephen and his successor, Peter, have been found at Torda and Kolozsvár (now Turda and Cluj-Napoca in Romania), and other places, showing that the nearby fortresses were in use in the first half of the 11th century.

[26][24] On the other hand, Simon of Kéza – who thought that the battle had occurred during the reign of Solomon's cousin, Ladislaus – recorded that the marauders were Bessi, or Pechenegs, arch-enemies of the Hungarians[27] in his Gesta Hunnorum et Hungarorum.

[25][20] Historian István Bóna writes that the reference to "Gyula, Duke of the Comans" in the Illuminated Chronicle preserved the memory of the Pechenegs' Jula tribe who dwelt to the west of the River Dniester.

[24] A layer of black soil and other signs of a general destruction by fire, which have been dated to King Solomon's reign, suggest that the fortresses, built of earth and timber, at Doboka, Kolozsvár and Sajósárvár were destroyed in the 1060s.

[20][31] King Solomon and his cousins, Dukes Géza and Ladislaus, gathered their troops at the fortress of Doboka to give battle to the marauders near the confluence of the Rivers Beszterce and Sajó (now the Bistrița and the Șieu, respectively).

[32] According to the legend, which incorporates elements of earlier Oriental tales, a "Cuman" warrior tried to escape from the battlefield, taking a beautiful girl from Nagyvárad with him.

[31] The legend was depicted on the walls of many churches in the Kingdom of Hungary, especially in the northern and southeastern territories (in present-day Slovakia and Romania).