Documents from Spanish friars such as Juan de Plasencia's Customs of the Tagalogs (1589) describe the tikbalang as ghosts and spirits of the forests, associated with the terms multo and bibit.

Entries in early Spanish-Tagalog dictionaries defined tigbalang as "fantasma de montes"[3] (phantoms of the mountains/wilds), linking them strongly as nature spirits.

It is described as a phantom, which assumes a variety of uncouth and monstrous shapes, and interposes its authority, to prevent their performing the duties, prescribed by our religion.

In historical dictionaries (San Buenaventura's 1613 Vocabulario spelled as "tigbalang"), they were likened to the tiyanac, while in some entries they were given the definition as "satyrs" (satiro), "gnomes" (duendes) or "goblins" (trasgo).

Juan Francisco de San Antonio's Cronicas(1738-1744) describes the tikbalang as a malevolent entity living in the mountains, able to shapeshift into a variety of forms, including horses.

However, the very first document to actually describe the tikbalang as specifically having the appearance of a werehorse as it is more commonly known is Juan José Delgado's Biblioteca Histórica Filipina (orig.

Delgado recounts an alleged incident wherein a young boy from the town of San Mateo, after having escaped an attempted abduction by the tikbalang, described the creature as follows: "a very tall and skinny black man, with a long face like a horse, the shins of his legs reaching above his head when squatting down...(he had) very long ears and nose and somewhat short horns on his forehead, very large and frightening eyes, and the mouth of a horse.

[6] Tikbalangs or Tigbolan scare travelers, lead them astray and play tricks on them such as making them return to an arbitrary path no matter how far they go or turn.

Tikbalang is generally associated with dark, sparsely populated, foliage-overgrown areas, with legends variously identifying their abode as being beneath bridges, in bamboo clumps or banana groves, and atop Kalumpang (Sterculia foetida)[8] or Balite (Ficus indica) trees.