 Each chapter presents at the beginning the exposition of a property of bees, followed by an allegorical interpretation of the same – generally of moral kind – and then by a series of "exempla".While the passages on bees and allegorical interpretations are taken (as the author himself says) from 'other books', Thomas takes up the matter of each "exemplum" "from his own experience or from contemporary oral, religious or secular sources".Overall, the text therefore represents "a treatise on practical theology and morals".