Bishop Solomon: The Book of the Bee

About the Author

Not much is known about the author, Mar Shelemon, or Bishop Solomon. He was a native of Akhlât, in Armenia, and was the Nestorian metropolitan bishop of Basra in the thirteenth century ce. He was present at the consecration of the Nestorian patriarch Sabrisho’ IV bar Qayyoma, who as patriarch bore the title of “Catholicos,” in 1222. In catalogs of ecclesiastical works he is stated to have written, besides The Book of the Bee, a treatise on the heavens and the earth, various short discourses, prayers, and poems.