To understand all these better we need to know some terminologies first.

Identity Provider(IdP)

They are the entities that manage and store user credentials.

Relying Party(RP)

The service that request and receive data from the Identity Providers.

Service Provider(SP)

This could be a collection of apps that we use everyday at work or could also be a website.

SAML Assertion

These are the digitally signed XML documents that encapsulate user identity data. User identity data is usually represented in the form of attributes such as email address, name, phone etc.