Samnun ibn Abd Allah al-Khawwas, known as Samnun al-Muhibb (Samnun the Lover), is distinguished among the early Sufi masters for placing love (محبت / mahabba) at the foundation of the mystical path, ahead of gnosis (معرفت / ma'rifa). Whereas most masters treated gnosis as the higher station and love as one state among many, Samnun held that all states and stations are subordinate to love, which he called the root and principle of the way to God. This teaching is the reason for his epithet Samnun al-Muhibb and serves as the interpretive key to his life, sayings, and the trials he endured, as recorded in the Sufi hagiographies.