For fifty years, most people believed the Necronomicon, an ancient grimoire written by the “Mad Arab” Abdul Alhazrad in the year 700, was imaginary. That is, until a writer using only the name Simon published what he claimed to be a translation of the text in 1977. How could a book of spells meant to invoke interdimensional space deities or raise otherworldly destructors from the depths of the sea, based on a complex mythos that seemed to have been the invention of a small circle of weird fiction writers led by H. P. Lovecraft, have any basis in reality. If there really was a Necronomicon written in 700, how did Lovecraft know about it? And if there wasn't, why would Simon claim that the book was an authentic translation of a real ancient grimoire?