Sobekemsaf I is attested by a series of inscriptions mentioning a mining expedition to the rock quarries at Wadi Hammamat in the Eastern Desert during his reign.

[4] He extensively restored and decorated the Temple of Monthu at Medamud where a fine high relief of this king making an offering before the gods has survived.

From inscriptions found on a doorjamb discovered in the remains of a 17th Dynasty temple at Gebel Antef on the Luxor-Farshut road, it is known today that Nubkheperre Intef and, by implication, his brother and immediate predecessor on the throne —Sekhemre-Wepmaat Intef— were sons of one of the two Sobekemsaf kings.

"[31] While no one knows precisely when Hornakht died, the fact that his funerary equipment contained a box which belonged to Minemhat suggests that Nubkheperre Intef and Seqenenre Tao ruled closely in time and that their reigns should not be separated by the intrusion of various other long lived kings of the 17th dynasty such as Sekhemre Wajdkhaw Sobekemsaf I who is attested by a Year 7 inscription.

As the late Middle Kingdom German Egyptologist Detlef Franke (1952–2007) succinctly wrote in a journal article which was published in 2008—a year after his death: In addition, Polz argued that Ryholt's rejection of the evidence in Cairo Statue CG 386—which named king Sekhemre Wadjkhaw Sobekemsaf's son as another Sobekemsaf—in not giving any indication of the sequence of the known 17th dynasty Theban rulers is untenable.

[33] While Ryholt acknowledges in his 1997 book on the Second Intermediate Period that Anthony Spalinger suggested the prince Sobekemsaf who is attested in "a statue from Abydos (Cairo CG 386)" and "has the additional title of prophet, may be identical with Sobkemsaf II Sekhemreshedtawy",[34] Ryholt simply writes that: Polz notes that although Sekhemre Wadjkhaw Sobekemsaf ruled in a time during the Second Intermediate Period when few documentary sources exist, one cannot simply accept Ryholt's theory that Sekhemre Wadjkhaw Sobekemsaf I's son and designated successor did not succeed his own father as the next king merely because Ryholt's hypothesis did not allow another Sobekemsaf to follow Sekhemre Wadjkhaw Sobekemsaf on the throne due to his theory of the succession of 17th dynasty kings as being: Sekhemre-Shedtawy Sobekemsaf->Sekhemre-Wepmaat Intef->Nubkheperre Intef->Sekhemre-Heruhirmaat Intef->Sekhemre Wadjkhaw Sobekemsaf->Senakhtenre->etc.

Sobekemsaf II) "was thoroughly robbed in antiquity" and set on fire by tomb robbers as recorded in Papyrus Abbott III 1-7.

Sobekemsaf I Wadjkhaw was likely buried in Dra' Abu el-Naga' and his tomb was only found and looted in the late 19th century.

For much the same reason, a wooden canopic chest also bearing the name 'Sobekemsaf' on it has also been attributed to this king by Ryholt and Aidan Dodson.