The exposition given by Hippolytus is widely different. According to the account he gives, Basilides started neither with a dualism of God and matter or evil, nor with a theory of emanation. His first principle was God, the unknown, incomprehensible, unspeakable, non-existent one, of whom nothing can be predicated, for no words are adequate to express His essence. This non-existent God, by the exercise of what may be called volition, created the πανσπερμία, or seed, which contained in itself the germs of all things. In this chaotic mass, which strongly resembles the ομοιομερή of Anaxagoras, there is a mixture of elements,— σύγχισις αρχική, — and at the same time are embedded in it three degrees or kinds of divine sonship, consubstantial with the Deity. The first kind is refined and pure, the second gross, the third requiring purification. As all things naturally tend towards God, the first sonship ascended and sat beside the Father. The second also strove to ascend by means of the Spirit, which is to him as a wing, but he could not rise quite to the Deity, and occupied an inferior position, while the wing or spirit formed the firmament. The third sonship still remained immersed in matter. Then from the world seed there burst forth the great apχωv, or ruler, who ascended as far as the firmament, and, imagining that there was nothing beyond, glorified himself as the brightest and strongest of all beings. This ruler, who is sometimes called Abraxas, but whose true name is ineffable, produced a son wiser and better than himself, by whose aid he laid the foundations of the world. The seat of their rule is called the Ogdoad, and it extends through all the ethereal region down to the moon’s sphere, where the grosser air begins. This lower dominion is ruled by a second and inferior aρχωv, the God of the Jews, who also had produced a son; and their seat is called the Hebdomad. Meanwhile, the third sonship, which is truly the spiritual element in the elect, is tied to matter, and is in need of deliverance. Freedom is given by the truth, i.e., by a knowledge of the true system of things, and it is given by a series of illuminations. First the mind of the son of the Great Archon is enlightened, and he instructs his father, who learns with fear and repentance that there is a sphere of being higher than his own. The light then passes to the son of the Archon of the Hebdomad, who likewise instructs his father. Finally, the mind of Jesus is illuminated, and he instructs those of mankind who are able to receive the truth. There are thus three great stages in the world’s religious history, each being an advance on its predecessor. These periods are the Ante-Jewish, the Jewish, and the Christian. All the souls capable of receiving the light ascend upwards, while their bodies return to the primeval chaos; the minds of all others are shrouded in eternal night, the darkness of ignorance. For the relation of Basilides to other Gnostics, and for the interpretation of his intensely symbolic expressions, see Gnostics.

The earlier accounts of Basilides, such as those of Neander, Baur (in the Christliche Gnosis'), and Matter, were based for the most part on Irenaeus. The discovery of the Philosophoumena threw unexpected light on the subject, and the later expositions generally follow Hippolytus as the exponent of the original system of Basilides. Hilgenfeld still retains the older view. Full information is to be found in Baur, Kirchengeschichte, i.; L·ipsius, Gnostidsmτιs; Uhlhorn, Das Basilideanische System; Mansel, Gnostic Heresies.