An idea · Late Antiquity · first attested 260 CE
The One
Beyond being. The unsayable source from which everything emanates.
Plotinus's Hen. The One is so radically simple it cannot even be said to "be" or "be one" – those are still distinctions, and the One is beyond distinction. From it emanate Intellect, then Soul, then matter. The soul's ascent is the reversal of this descent. Christian mysticism inherits this scheme; Jewish Kabbalah and Islamic Sufism take it up too.