An item, dated 23 September in the 7 October 1916 Motion Picture News, reported that 400 extras of all races crowded the thirty-nine-acre Selig Zoo studios on Mission Road in Los Angeles to play soldiers, natives and tourists in mob scenes. "Almost every evening, artificial-light scenes...were filmed." The exterior scenes were shot in the gardens of the Santa Barbara Mission and in California's Mojave Desert. Filming took nearly four months. A month earlier, the 26 August 1916 Motion Picture News had noted that "an army of carpenters and masons" was busy building the "gigantic settings" at the studio, and that towers were being built "of such construction that they may be taken to the desert in sections." The 2 September 1916 Motion Picture News added that a cast and crew of 250 people went to Oxnard, CA, the previous week to film in the desert.
       The 16 December 1916 Moving Picture World listed the film's most sensational scenes as "the sand storm, the battle of the desert nomads, scenes in the garden of Allah and on the Sahara Desert, and the streets and bazaars of the Oriental city of Beni-Mora." Elsewhere in the same issue, it was reported that director Colin Campbell invented his own machine to create the realistic sand storm, which blew down tents and palm trees, and sent debris flying through the air. For one scene, "a company of French zouaves in natty uniforms, which fit the men perfectly," had been "tailor-made, by order, for the occasion." Helen Ware's costumes were similarly specially made. Professional Arab dancing women were hired. The 23 June 1917 Moving Picture World, citing a nine-reel release, stated, "Not a scene is introduced that is not to be found in Robert Hichens' famous book. Not a word will be found in sub-titles that cannot be found in the beautiful text of the story." Title card art was by Van Nise.
       The picture was copyrighted as being twelve reels in length, but some reviews, particularly the later ones, cited nine reels, suggesting that the subsequent release in 1917 had been trimmed.
       Mary Anderson and Robert Hichens adapted Hichens' novel into a successful stage play that opened in New York 21 Oct 1911. The film had its world premiere in Indianapolis on Christmas Day, 1916. Hichens' novel was filmed again in 1927 by M-G-M, with Alice Terry starring and Rex Ingram directing; and in 1936 by Selznick International, with Marlene Dietrich and Charles Boyer starring and Richard Boleslawski directing (see entries).