The temple houses Seoul City’s Cultural Properties Materials No. 8, Seokyaksa Seated Buddha. When King Taejo founded the Joseon Dynasty and built the palace, the work did not go smoothly as the buildings collapsed several times. Then one night, a mysterious creature appeared in the dark, resembling a half-tiger and half-unknown life-form, and tried to ram the palace building. Although guards fired a shower of arrows at it, the creature knocked down the palace and vanished into the darkness. When King Taejo returned to his bedroom after the incident, an old man appeared in his room and said, “A mountain peak that resembles a tiger's head overlooks Seoul, and in order to suppress the tiger’s energy, a temple should be built in the tail part of the tiger-shaped mountain peak, and then all will be fine,” which is why King Taejo ordered a temple to be built in this location and for its name being Hoapsa Temple (tiger-suppressing temple).