a story is told? or tells?

[je2ks2]

Firstly, 'a/the story tells' is the active form of the verb 'to tell' and needs a direct object. So, we might write:
"The story tells us about a time when..." - where 'us' is the direct object.

"The story is told of/about/that" is the passive form. We are actually saying:
"The story is told (by 'someone') of a time when.../ about a man who../that Samuel Hanagid, an eleventh century..."
Note that there is no direct object.

I am just curious why 'the story tells of' sounds correct even though the verb is 'active', not passive and there is NO direct object following. That makes me believe 'the story tells that', the sentence that doesn't have direct object as well, could be correct in that sense.

My point is again, that if both 'The story tells of'--which Raymott said the sentence is nothing wrong--and 'The story is told of' are correct, why not 'A story tells that' and 'A story is told that' are also both appropriate?

[Raymott]

I am just curious why 'the story tells of' sounds correct even though the verb is 'active', not passive and there is NO direct object following. That makes me believe 'the story tells that', the sentence that doesn't have direct object as well, could be correct in that sense.

My point is again, that if both 'The story tells of'--which Raymott said the sentence is nothing wrong--and 'The story is told of' are correct, why not 'A story tells that' and 'A story is told that' are also both appropriate?

I think it is grammatical to say "The story tells that ..."
But it is not a phrase that we use often (as you've discovered). The other choices are better stylistically.