diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index a1a7582d66..78bdc95a30 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -35,6 +35,7 @@
 * Fix `xlabels` in `plot_elpd` ([1601](https://github.com/arviz-devs/arviz/pull/1601))
 * Renamed `sample` dim to `__sample__` when stacking `chain` and `draw` to avoid dimension collision ([1647](https://github.com/arviz-devs/arviz/pull/1647))
 * Removed the `circular` argument in `plot_dist` in favor of `is_circular` ([1681](https://github.com/arviz-devs/arviz/pull/1681))
+* Fix `legend` argument in `plot_separation` ([1701](https://github.com/arviz-devs/arviz/pull/1701))
 
 ### Deprecation
 * Deprecated `index_origin` and `order` arguments in `az.summary` ([1201](https://github.com/arviz-devs/arviz/pull/1201))
diff --git a/arviz/plots/backends/bokeh/separationplot.py b/arviz/plots/backends/bokeh/separationplot.py
index 78c153b3ec..28ef3c68cd 100644
--- a/arviz/plots/backends/bokeh/separationplot.py
+++ b/arviz/plots/backends/bokeh/separationplot.py
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ def plot_separation(
     figsize,
     textsize,
     color,
-    legend,  # pylint: disable=unused-argument
+    legend,
     locs,
     width,
     ax,
@@ -53,6 +53,13 @@ def plot_separation(
     exp_events_kwargs.setdefault("color", "black")
     exp_events_kwargs.setdefault("size", 15)
 
+    if legend:
+        y_hat_line_kwargs.setdefault("legend_label", label_y_hat)
+        exp_events_kwargs.setdefault(
+            "legend_label",
+            "Expected events",
+        )
+
     figsize, *_ = _scale_fig_size(figsize, textsize)
 
     idx = np.argsort(y_hat)
@@ -79,7 +86,6 @@ def plot_separation(
         ax.line(
             np.linspace(0, 1, len(y_hat)),
             y_hat[idx],
-            legend_label=label_y_hat,
             **y_hat_line_kwargs,
         )
 
@@ -88,7 +94,6 @@ def plot_separation(
         ax.triangle(
             y_hat[idx][len(y_hat) - expected_events - 1],
             0,
-            legend_label="Expected events",
             **exp_events_kwargs,
         )
 
diff --git a/arviz/plots/backends/matplotlib/separationplot.py b/arviz/plots/backends/matplotlib/separationplot.py
index 3b8bc5bb57..528f89ddb0 100644
--- a/arviz/plots/backends/matplotlib/separationplot.py
+++ b/arviz/plots/backends/matplotlib/separationplot.py
@@ -80,7 +80,7 @@ def plot_separation(
             **exp_events_kwargs
         )
 
-    if legend and expected_events or y_hat_line:
+    if legend and (expected_events or y_hat_line):
         handles, labels = ax.get_legend_handles_labels()
         labels_dict = dict(zip(labels, handles))
         ax.legend(labels_dict.values(), labels_dict.keys())