His identification with the Sibir (mSi-bir) named by Ashurnasirpal II in his annals[i 1] as having earlier captured and laid waste Atlila (probably modern Bakr Awa), a city on Assyria’s eastern flank, remains unresolved.

[2] Simbar-Šipak lived during turbulent times, where crop failures and almost constant conflicts with semi-nomadic migrants caused the Babylonian government of the preceding 2nd Dynasty of Isin to fall.

[1]: 121–122 In his dedication to Enlil, he describes himself as, “he who puts in order the paths of Anum and Dagan, he who preserves their rites.”[nb 4][11] The Sun God Tablet of Nabu-apla-iddina[i 9] relates that “during the troubles and disorders in Akkad”, the Sutû, the “evil foe”, had overthrown the cult idol of Šamaš in Sippar.

Simbar-Šipak, had sought to recover it but had been unsuccessful due to lack of divine support – so he suspended a sun disc (“nipḫu”) as a substitute idol, established regular offerings, and installed Ekur-šum-ušabši, the seer and priest of Sippar, at the temple.

[9] The Religious Chronicle is thought to record events of his reign, based on the order of preceding kings,[12] and provides some fairly obscure portents such as “a wolf was lurking in the west,” “a badger in the Uraš gate at the door of the šatammu's (temple administrator’s) residence,” “two deer entered Babylon,” and most ominously “on the twenty-sixth of the month Simanu, in the seventh year, day turned to night and there was a fire in the sky,” an eclipse, speculated to have taken place on 9 May 1012 B.C.