The Wilderness of Saba appears to have been affected during the seismic activity associated with the Holy Desert Quake South. The term Wilderness of Saba appears to refer to the monastic desert associated with the Mar Saba Monastery, located east of Bethlehem in the Judean Desert. It is uncertain, however, whether the term referred specifically to the immediate vicinity of Mar Saba or to a broader area of the surrounding monastic wilderness.

The principal evidence comes from George Cedrenus, who reports that "there were many earthquakes in various places" and then states that "in the mountains in the wilderness of Saba, a village was swallowed." Elsewhere in the same chronological sequence, Cedrenus describes the Holy Desert Quake South, reporting that it struck Palestine and the Jordan Valley region, killed an innumerable multitude, collapsed churches and monasteries, and was worst "in the wilderness by the Holy City (Jerusalem)." This latter description is consistent with other Byzantine accounts of the Holy Desert Quake South. Paul the Deacon, Theophanes, Megas Chronographos, and Anastasius Bibliothecarius similarly report the collapse of churches and monasteries, while Paul the Deacon, Theophanes, and Anastasius Bibliothecarius specifically identify the desert or wilderness of Jerusalem as the area of greatest destruction. Cedrenus' reference to a village being swallowed in the Wilderness of Saba therefore provides a more geographically specific account of severe seismic effects within this broader zone of destruction.