It does not appear that the Oriental philosophy, or the earliest Gnostic systems, recognised any place higher than the eighth sphere; and it is here that according to the account of Epiphanius ("Haer." 26, p. 91) dwelt Barbelo the mother of all. But Grecian philosophy came to teach that above the sensible world there lay a still higher, and Clem. Alex. () speaks of the eighth sphere as lying nearest "to noeto kosmo". Accordingly, those Gnostic systems which are tinctured by Grecian philosophy, while leaving untouched the doctrine of seven or eight material heavens, develop in various ways the theory of the region above them. In the system of Basilides, as reported by Hippolytus (), Ogdoad and Hebdomad are merely names of place. In that system the universe is divided into the Kosmos and the hypercosmical region. At the highest point of the Kosmos presides the great archon, ruling over the Ogdoad, or ethereal region, which is described as reaching down to the moon. Beneath the Ogdoad is the Hebdomad presided over by its own archon. In one place (p. 238) the names Ogdoad and Hebdomad seem to be given to the archons themselves. In any case the names shew marks of having been derived from a previous system, for the system of Basilides itself gives no account of the numbers seven or eight; and the number of heavens is not limited to seven, as many as 365 being counted. In "Pistis Sophia", the doctrine of the higher regions receives such enormous development that the seven planetary spheres are thought of as contemptibly low; and Ialdabaoth, once their ruler, in this book sinks to a demon.