The probable representative of this place is thus described in the Memoirs accompanying the Ordnance Survey (2:413):
"Three mud villages of the name es-Suafir exist close together. It is probably the Zeoplir in the territory of Ascalon, given as properly to the bishop of Bethlehem, A.D. 1100 (William of Tyre). The most ancient of the sites would appear to be Suafir esh-Shemaliyeh (the most northerly of the three), where there are ruined cisterns of rubble masonry. There are small gardens and wells at each village."