Bath's Joe Maddock leaves John Andress, of Quins, in his wake
Bath ran in three tries to overcome Harlequins and maintain their push for a Guinness Premiership play-off place.
Olly Barkley touched down and converted as the home side led 10-6 at the break - the centre also notching a penalty with Nick Evans kicking Quins' points.
Bath prop Duncan Bell went over after combining well with Lee Mears as Barkley obliged with the extras.
Joe Maddock raced over for a third before Tom Williams scored a consolation try, which Evans converted.
Barkley, in his first appearance at the Recreation Ground since breaking his leg last summer, sent over a fourth-minute penalty from 50 metres out to put the hosts in front.
However, 13 minutes later he fluffed a simpler kick from less than half that distance straight in front of the posts.
Matt Banahan's power almost got him over for the first try, however two rucks later Barkley stepped inside prop Kerry Jones to touch down - England international Barkley converting to make it 10-0.
Barkley missed another penalty with four minutes of the half remaining but, after Bath skipper Michael Claassens was shown a yellow card for a high and early tackle on David Strettle, Quins fly-half Nick Evans made no mistake with two penalties to give his side hope at the interval.
Evans, though, saw another penalty sail wide after the restart.
Banahan was unlucky when the referee ruled he had infringed on David Brown when the wing went over following a well-executed chip-and-run.
Tight-head Bell ran over from 25 metres out after combining with his front row Lee Mears, as Barkley converted once more to make it 17-6.
Winger Maddock shimmied past Strettle for a third five-pointer, with Barkley adding two more points.
However, a fourth bonus-point try eluded Bath, and Quins ended the game on a positive when Williams finished off a long-range counter-attack before Evans added the conversion.
Bath head coach Steve Meehan on Barkley: "He's not in his prime yet and before the end of the season we'll start to see that.
"I think he has a real chance, a very strong chance of making that trip [England's summer tour to Australia].
"He has a very accurate long pass, Olly, and good speed so he can get outside defenders and release outside attackers quite nicely.
"It was illustrated perfectly by Joe Maddock's try. That's just a brilliant bit of rugby. If anybody scores a better try than that this weekend, it will have to be an absolute screamer."
Harlequins director of rugby Conor O'Shea: "Bath are a good side but at 24-6 down there are only two ways you can go. From one to 15 we stuck in there. I thought we might come away with something but definitely the best side won.
"Individual mistakes put us under pressure. We missed a few tackles, missed a few touches. "We did get into their 22 on a number of occasions but coughed the ball up or got penalised.
"Any game is finely balanced. When we looked like getting on to the front foot, as when we pulled back to 10-6 at the start of the second half, we gave momentum back to them."
Bath: Abendanon, Maddock, Hape, Barkley, Banahan, James, Claassens, Flatman, Mears, Bell, Hooper, Short, Beattie, Salvi, Watson. Replacements: Little for Abendanon (77), Cuthbert for Banahan (69), Barnes for Flatman (17), Dixon for Mears (65), Jarvis for Bell (71), Grewcock for Short (62), Fa'amatuainu for Beattie (68). Not Used: Bemand. Sin Bin: Claassens (34).
Harlequins: Harlequins: Brown, Strettle, Lowe, Turner-Hall, Monye, N. Evans, Care, Jones, Fuga, Andress, Percival, Robson, Robshaw, Skinner, Guest. Replacements: Williams for Lowe (54), Clegg for Monye (74), Croall for Jones (72), Brooker for Fuga (51), Johnston for Andress (65), York for Guest (40). Not Used: Stevenson, Dickson.
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