The collection of wise sayings “The Bee” was very popular in Byzantium and Ancient Rus'. It contains quotations from the Holy Scriptures, Church Fathers and church writers (up to the 7th century inclusive), selected by an unknown ancient author (possibly from the 9th–10th centuries), ancient pre-Christian authors (famous historical figures of antiquity, poets, philosophers, historians) or instructive fragments from their biographies. The sayings are collected in thematic chapters (71 chapters) on a variety of ideological and even everyday topics, and the work, thus, is a short moral and edifying “encyclopedia” that does not lose its relevance to this day.