diff --git a/package/pixman/pixman.mk b/package/pixman/pixman.mk
index 38524e63c4..c797b3e60c 100644
--- a/package/pixman/pixman.mk
+++ b/package/pixman/pixman.mk
@@ -20,6 +20,23 @@ PIXMAN_AUTORECONF = YES
 # don't build gtk based demos
 PIXMAN_CONF_OPTS = --disable-gtk
 
+# The ARM SIMD code from pixman requires a recent enough ARM core, but
+# there is a runtime CPU check that makes sure it doesn't get used if
+# the HW doesn't support it. The only case where the ARM SIMD code
+# cannot be *built* at all is when the platform doesn't support ARM
+# instructions at all, so we have to disable that explicitly.
+ifeq ($(BR2_ARM_CPU_HAS_ARM),y)
+PIXMAN_CONF_OPTS += --enable-arm-simd
+else
+PIXMAN_CONF_OPTS += --disable-arm-simd
+endif
+
+ifeq ($(BR2_ARM_CPU_HAS_ARM)$(BR2_ARM_CPU_HAS_NEON),yy)
+PIXMAN_CONF_OPTS += --enable-arm-neon
+else
+PIXMAN_CONF_OPTS += --disable-arm-neon
+endif
+
 # disable iwmmxt support for CPU's that don't have
 # this feature
 ifneq ($(BR2_iwmmxt),y)