Located in Wadi Nuʿman, on the road between Ta’if and Makkah, it was named after Zubayda bint Jaʿfar, the wife of the Caliph Harun al-Rashid, who ordered that spring water be brought to Makkah in 791. This initiative was taken after she observed the hardships of the pilgrims in fetching water from a place called al-Awjar at the lower part of Jabal Kara, west of the Sacred Precinct. The project took ten years to complete, and its channels to Makkah are 38 kilometers in length. Successive Muslim caliphs, sultans, princes, and wealthy benefactors took care of its maintenance and construction thereafter. King Abdulaziz Al Saud ordered that it be restored, and a special administration was established to manage the spring, named ʿAyn Zubayda, in order to fully oversee the spring and its associated wells, and their restoration.