The Book of the Bee

The Book of the Bee is a collection of theological and historical texts compiled by Solomon of Akhlat in the thirteenth century. The book discusses various topics including the creation, heaven and earth, the angels, darkness, paradise, Old Testament patriarchs, New Testament events, lists of kings and patriarchs, and the final day of resurrection. The book was originally written in Syriac and has been translated into English and Arabic. This edition was taken from the Sacred Texts version and here are the transcription notes: This edition was written primarily for philologists, and the printed version contains the entire text in Syriac, as well as extensive selections from Arabic translations. There are also lengthy footnotes in Syriac, many words in Arabic and Hebrew, and references to the pagination of the Syriac text embedded in the English translation. Almost all of this apparatus has been removed and is normally not noted. Where the existence of a Syriac word is crucial to the understanding of a footnote, it has been noted with the symbol ###. Underlines represent breve (short) markings over vowels, and dots under consonants, ` and ´ represent right and left pointing apostrophes in transcriptions of Semitic words.