In Gnostic tradition, the term Sophia (Σoφíα, Greek for "wisdom") refers to the final and lowest emanation of God. In most if not all versions of the gnostic myth, Sophia brings about an instability in the Pleroma, in turn bringing about the creation of materiality. The positive or negative depiction of materiality thus resides a great deal on mythic depictions of Sophia's actions. She is occasionally referred to by the Hebrew equivalent of Achamoth (this is a feature of Ptolemy's version of the Valentinian gnostic myth).

Almost all gnostic systems or the Syrian or Egyptian type taught that the universe began with an original, unknowable God, referred to as the Parent or Bythos, as the Monad by Monoimus, or the first Aeon by still other traditions. From this initial unitary beginning the One spontaneously emanated further Aeons, pairs of progressively 'lesser' beings in sequence. The lowest of these pairs were Sophia and Christ. The Aeons together made up the Pleroma, or fullness, of God, and thus should not be seen as distinct from the divine, but symbolic abstractions of the divine nature.

The fall of Sophia

Sophia's fear and anguish of losing her life, (just as she lost the light of the One) caused confusion and longing to return to it. Because of these longings the matter (Greek: hyle) and the soul (Greek: psyke, ψυχή)

After this the savior (Christ) returns and lets her see the light again, bringing her knowledge of the spirit (Greek: pneuma, πνεῦμα). Christ was then sent to earth on the form of the man Jesus to give men the gnosis needed to rescue themselves from the physical world and return to spiritual world.

In Valentinin myth, the three sensations experienced by Sophia create three correspondent types of humans:

• hylics (bond to the matter, the principle of evil)
• psychics (bond to the soul and partly saved from evil)
• pneumatics that can return to the pleroma if they achieve gnosis and can behold the world of light. The gnostics regarded themselves as members of this group.

Премудрость Sofia (gnostilaisuus)