Ikhwan Al-Safa, tenth-century Muslim thinkers whose Arabic Rasa’il were written in Iraq, did not dedicate any of their encyclopedia treatises to history. Indeed, according to their neoplatonic thought, historical events are accidents that do not merit serious consideration within a discipline dedicated to the perfection of the soul. However, a notion of history is not absent from their writing. Their arguments often utilize history. My paper examines Ikhwan Al-Safa’s use of biblical narratives to make historical arguments. I focus on their reading of Samuel 28:3-25 in their “Epistle on Magic.” This biblical passage tells the story of Saul, who seeks out a medium to divine the future. His encounter with Samuel through the medium of the Witch of Endor is used by the Ikhwan as proof that magic—which for them includes necromancy—exists and should be seen as the highest form of wisdom. The Ikhwan’s reading of this biblical narrative appears to be “literal,” so that their argument only stands if the events described had transpired in history. This biblical narrative and others are grouped with an allegory told by Plato in his Republic. Given the nature of allegory as a two-layered mode of discourse, one would expect the Ikhwan to read the story of Gyge’s ring figuratively, especially since they employ allegory in communicating in multiple layers of meaning elsewhere. Yet the Ikhwan read both the biblical narrative and Plato’s allegory as history, and proceed to make an argument about the validity and importance of magic based on that literal reading. Ikhwan Al-Safa’s larger argument that magic is a reality which must be studied by serious scholars stipulates a “literal” historical reading, which is a peculiar cleavage from their reading of qur’anic text. Throughout their epistles the Ikhwan interpret qur’anic verses figuratively, so why would they read biblical narratives literally? Samuel 28 posed a challenge to biblical commentators both Christian and Jewish, leading to lengthy debates about whether scripture should be read allegoricaly or “literally.” I examine Ikhwan Al-Safa’s interpretation of this biblical passage in light of contemporary Jewish biblical commentary and philosophical thought about magic and history, and use this case study to discuss the role of history in Ikhwan Al-Safa’s thought.