The 12-page dossier on royal finances in the French-language current affairs weekly is unprecedented in Morocco and probably in the Arab world.
"Although there is nothing secret about it, the budget of the monarchy frightens Moroccans," it wrote. "Neither the media nor parliamentarians dare yet to study it too closely".
The magazine noted the court's annual budget traditionally obtains approval in parliament after cursory review. The king earned just under $50,000 a month, or less than a chief executive at a major company in the developed world, and annual expenses for the royal court of 1,100 people were 2.28 billion dirhams ($277 million), it said.
Such figures are never discussed in Morocco. TelQuel editor Ahmed Benchemsi told Reuters on Friday the sums had been known to "maybe 50 people in the kingdom" before the article.
Even members of parliament shy from examining the expenses of the king and court. "We dare not even mention the words 'royal budget' during the debate on the draft budget," TelQuel quoted one member of parliament as saying. "As to discussing it - I won't even say criticising it - this is completely out of the question".
MORE PRESS FREEDOM: TelQuel has taken on the monarchy before. In November, it published a cartoon of the king, an exceptional move among the largely docile media that views the monarchy as sacred.
So far, the palace has remained silent on TelQuel's bold steps.
King Mohammed, 41, has been trying to reform and modernise Morocco since he ascended the throne in 1999 after the death of his autocratic father, King Hassan, who ruled for 38 years.
Benchemsi said the loosening of government control over the media in the past five years had left many journalists unclear about how far they could go and where the red lines were.