It is watered by a perennial stream whose source is the large catchment area on the eastern slopes of Jabal An-Nabi Shu'ayb.

The wadi proper begins near the village of Suq Bayt Naʽam and then flows eastward for about 7km through a steep-sided gorge before ending on the Sanaa plain.

The main fort, built by the Hatimi sultan of Sanaa in 1184 (584 AH), was located below the summit, on the southern side of the mountain.

It was originally called Dawram (or Dūram, the vocalization preferred by Muhammad al-Akwa), and under this name it appears in the Iklil of al-Hamdani and the Tarikh Sanʽa' of al-Razi.

The first reference to the modern name Ṭaybah is in the year 1324 (724 AH), in the Ghayat al-amani of Yahya ibn al-Husayn.