As the other buildings in the Cross Group, the Temple of the Foliated Cross, is a tall narrow pyramid surmounted by a temple with an elaborate stone roof comb. It contains a carved panel representing sacred rites. There is a Cross on the panel it contains, equally important to the Maya as the symbol is in the Christian faith. In the Maya Cosmological Order it represents the place where the heavens and the Underworld meet with the land of the living! The front half of the building is lost so the corbelled arches and keyholes are completely exposed, revealing how the architects at Palenque designed these buildings. A well preserved inscribed tablet shows a king, probably Pakal , with a sun shield emblazoned on his chest, corn growing from his shoulder blades and a sacred quetzal bird on his head.

The Tablet on the Foliated Cross is perhaps the most impressive of all the Palenque tablets. It contains a scene from Kan Balam II 's enthronement, and he is accompanied by his father Pakal II, or maybe, we can see the king as child and as an adult. Both reverence the corn or maize plant that has a celestial bird on top, and is growing on a base formed by a k'an or precious glyph on a mask. The symbol of K'an represents the corn seed, from which the plant grows. Kan Balam II offers an image to the K'awiil God, ruler deity of the temple, agriculture and lineage. It is on top of a Witz Nal glyph, or mask of the God of the Corn Mountain ... Pakal is on top of a snail, from which there are corn leaves growing... At sundown during the summer solstice, the sanctuary of the Foliated Cross is lit up by the sun, moment of the annual cycle that marks the fullness of the rainy season and farming activities, as it is then that the first corn stalks grow. On the left hand side of the glyphs there are several episodes of the creation of the World are recounted such as the birth of K'awiil in 2360 BC. On the right hand side consecration ceremonies of the temples in this compound are told, one is highly relevant, on July 23 rd 690 AD. Kan Balam II invoked a supernatural snake the next day during a ritual related to the cult of the ancestors.

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