The anonymous Dutch translator, "S.D.B.", gave a concise biographical review of the philosophers related to the text: Al Farabi, Avicenna, Al Ghazali, Ibn Bajjah, Ibn Rushd, Junayd, and Mansur Al-Hallaj (with a description of his death and a reference to his famous "Ana al-Haqq").
He was well read in philosophy, knowing the works of al-Kindi and al-Razi, the Aristotelian thought of al-Farabi and the Platonic writings.
In 1991-1992 Olsen held a Fulbright Research and Lecturing Award at Kazakh State University (now al-Farabi Kazakh National University; Əл Фараби атындағы Қазақ Ұлттық Университеті) in Almaty.
Other important philosophers and thinkers in the Sicilian Questions referred to are, in alphabetical order, Alexander of Aphrodisias, Anaxagoras, Berosus, Crates, Diogenes, Euclid, Al-Farabi, Galen, Al-Ghazali, Al-Hallaj, Ibn Bajja (Avempace) Ibn Sina (Avicenna), Iamblichus, Mellow, Parmenides, Pythagoras, Plato, Socrates, Themistius, Theophrastus, and Zeno of Elea.