Its very short course of 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) flows through arable land and then into the Pilgerbach stream near Edermünde-Holzhausen at an elevation of 182 metres (597 ft).

Die Krieger schmachteten vor Durst, der König saß auf schnee-weißem Schimmel; da trat das Pferd mit dem Huf auf den Boden und schlug einen Stein vom Felsen, aus der Öfnung sprudelte die Quelle mächtig.

Diese Quelle heißt Glisborn, ihrer kühlen, klaren Flut mißt das Landvolk größere Reinigungskraft bei als gewöhnlichem Wasser, und aus umliegenden Dörfern gehen die Weiber dahin ihr Leinen zu waschen.Charlemagne .... His warriors pined with thirst, the king sat on a snow-white steed; then the horse stomped with his hoof on the ground and broke away a piece of rock; out of the opening gushed a bubbling spring and the whole army was watered.

Glisborn is the name of the spring, to whose clear cold flood the country-folk impute a higher cleansing power than to common water, and women from surrounding villages come to wash their linen there.

Both variants of the legend are "supported" by a stone with the imprint of a horse's hoof that was embedded in the wall of a church (Karlskirche) in Karlskirchen, a long abandoned village nearby.