At the foot of the entrance to the temple there is a huge forked tongue. To the east of the door we can appreciate the beautiful sculpture of the head of a serpent of warlike character on which rest the remains of the statue of a warrior, and to the west there is another sculpture in the form of an enormous pedestal, symbolizing a tlalpanpanhuehuetl (war drum), on which are the remains of the sculpture of another warrior: apparently, both pieces functioned as standard bearers. As in other Mexica buildings, the orifice of the serpent's mouth served as the entrance to the enclosure, with the difference that the temple of Malincalco added a special drama thanks to the fact that the enormous forked tongue of the serpent served as an entrance mat.

The interior of the temple is extraordinary. On the floor there is a kind of bench that surrounds the space in the form of a hemicycle, where two eagles are located and, between them, an ocelot. In the center of the enclosure there is another eagle with the same attitude as the previous ones and, behind it, a round hole where possibly the heart of the sacrificed was deposited. In general terms, this temple served as a stage to carry out the initiation ceremonies of the eagle and jaguar warriors, hence the predominance of sculptures of these animals. However, there is a third figure that is of fundamental importance here: the serpent.