A strictly aerobic Gram-positive, moderately halophilic spore forming bacterium, designated strain $SL6-1^T$, was isolated from a salt lake in Xin-jiang province, China. Growth of strain $SL6-1^T$ was observed at NaCl concentrations of 0~20% (w/v) (the optimum being 5~7%, w/v). The peptidoglycan type of strain $SL6-1^T$ was $A1{gamma}$-meso-diaminopimelic acid and its major cellular fatty acids were iso-$C_{14:0}$ and iso-$C_{16:0}$ and ante-iso-$C_{15:0}$. The major respiratory isoprenoid quinone was MK-7 and the G+C content of the genomic DNA was 44.5 mol%. The major cellular phospholipids were phosphatidylglycerol and diphosphatidylglyceroL Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strain $SL6-1^T$ formed a phylogenetic lineage within the genus VirgibaciUus. Based on 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity, the strain was most closely related to Virgibacillus olivae $E_{30}8^T$, VirgibaciUus kekensis VIM $kkny16^T$, VirgibaciUus marismortui DSM $12325^T$ with 97.1%, 97.1%, and 97.0% gene sequence similarities, respectively and the sequence similarities to other related taxa were less than 96.7%. The DNA relatedness values between strain $SL6-1^T$ and V. olivae $E_{30}8^T$, V. kekensis VIM $kkny16^T$, V. marismortui DSM $12325^T$ were 16.7%, 51.0%, and 22.8%, respectively. On the basis of physiological, biochemical and phylogenetic properties, strain $SL6-1^T$ represents a novel species, for which the name Virgibacillus xinjiangensis sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is $SL6-1^T$ (=KCTC $13128^T$ =DSM $19031^T$).