In the capital city of a rich and vast kingdom in China whose name I cannot at the moment recall, there lived a tailor called Mustafa, whose only distinguishing feature was his profession. This Mustafa was very poor, his work hardly producing enough to live on for him, his wife and a son whom God had given him.
The son, who was called Aladdin, had received a very neglected upbringing, which had led him to acquire many depraved tendencies. He was wicked, stubborn and disobedient towards his father and mother, who, once he became little older, could no longer keep him in the house. He would set out first thing in the morning and spend the day playing in the streets and public places with small vagabonds even younger than himself.
As soon as he was of an age to learn a trade, his father, who was not in a position to make him learn any trade other than his own, took him into his shop and began to show him how to handle a needle. But he remained unable to hold his son’s fickle attention, neither by fear of punishment nor by gentle means, and could not get him to sit down and apply himself to his work, as he had hoped. No sooner was Mustafa’s back turned than Aladdin would escape and not return for the rest of the day. His father would punish him, but Aladdin was incorrigible, and so, much to his regret, Mustafa was forced to leave him to his dissolute ways. All this caused Mustafa much distress, and his grief at not being able to make his son mend his ways resulted in a persistent illness of which, a few months later, he died.
Aladdin’s mother, seeing how her son was not going to follow in his father’s footsteps and learn tailoring, closed the shop so that the proceeds from the sale of all the tools of its trade, together with the little she could earn by spinning cotton, would help provide for herself and her son.
Aladdin, however, no longer restrained by the fear of a father, paid so little attention to his mother that he had the effrontery to threaten her when she so much as remonstrated with him, and now abandoned himself completely to his dissolute ways. He associated increasingly with children of his own age, playing with them with even greater enthusiasm. He continued this way of life until he was fifteen, with his mind totally closed to anything else and with no thought of what he might one day become. Such was his situation when one day, while he was playing in the middle of a square with a band of vagabonds, as was his wont, a stranger who was passing by stopped to look at him.
This stranger was a famous magician who, so the authors of this story tell us, was an African, and this is what we will call him, as he was indeed from Africa, having arrived from that country only two days before.
Now it may be that it was because this African magician, who was an expert in the art of reading faces, had looked at Aladdin and had seen all that was essential for the execution of his journey’s purpose, or there might have been some other reason. Whatever the case, he artfully made enquiries about Aladdin’s family and about what sort of fellow he was. When he had learned all that he wanted to know, he went up to the young man and, drawing him a little aside from his companions, asked him: ‘My son, isn’t your father called Mustafa, the tailor?’ ‘Yes, sir,’ replied Aladdin, ‘but he has been dead a long time.’
At these words, the magician’s eyes filled with tears and, uttering deep sighs, he threw his arms round Aladdin’s neck, embracing and kissing him several times. Aladdin, seeing his tears, asked him why he was weeping. ‘Ah, my son,’ exclaimed the magician, ‘how could I stop myself? I am your uncle and your father was my dear brother. I have been travelling for several years and now, just when I arrive here in the hope of seeing him again and having him rejoice at my return, you say that he is dead! I tell you it’s very painful for me to find I am not going to receive the comfort and consolation I was expecting. But what consoles me a little in my grief is that, as far as I can remember them, I can recognize his features in your face, and that I was not wrong in speaking to you.’ Putting his hand on his purse, he asked Aladdin where his mother lived. Aladdin answered him straight away, at which the magician gave him a handful of small change, saying: ‘My son, go and find your mother, give her my greetings and tell her that, if I have time, I will go and see her tomorrow, so that I may have the consolation of seeing where my brother lived and where he ended his days.’
As soon as the magician had left, his newly invented nephew, delighted with the money his uncle had just given him, ran to his mother. ‘Mother,’ he said to her, ‘tell me, please, have I got an uncle?’ ‘No, my son,’ she replied, ‘you have no uncle, neither on your late father’s side nor on mine.’ ‘But I have just seen a man who says he is my uncle on my father’s side,’ insisted Aladdin. ‘He was his brother, he assured me. He even began to weep and embrace me when I told him my father was dead. And to prove I am telling the truth,’ he added, showing her the money he had been given, ‘here is what he gave me. He also charged me to give you his greetings and to tell you that tomorrow, if he has the time, he will come and greet you himself and at the same time see the house where my father lived and where he died.’ ‘My son,’ said his mother, ‘it’s true your father once had a brother, but he’s been dead a long time and I never heard him say he had another brother.’ They spoke no more about the African magician.
The next day, the magician approached Aladdin a second time as he was playing with some other children in another part of the city, embraced him as he had done on the previous day and, placing two gold coins in his hand, said to him: ‘My son, take this to your mother; tell her I am coming to see her this evening and say she should buy some food so we can dine together. But first, tell me where I can find your house.’ Aladdin told him where it was and the magician then let him go.
Aladdin took the two gold coins to his mother, who, as soon as she heard of his uncle’s plans, went out to put the money to use, returning with abundant provisions; but, finding herself with not enough dishes, she went to borrow some from her neighbours. She spent all day preparing the meal, and towards evening, when everything was ready, she said to Aladdin: ‘My son, perhaps your uncle doesn’t know where our house is. Go and find him and, when you see him, bring him here.’
Although Aladdin had told the magician where to find the house, he was nonetheless prepared to go out to meet him, when there was a knock on the door. Opening it, Aladdin discovered the magician, who entered, laden with bottles of wine and all kinds of fruit which he had brought for supper and which he handed over to Aladdin. He then greeted his mother and asked her to show him the place on the sofa where his brother used to sit. She showed him and immediately he bent down and kissed the spot several times, exclaiming with tears in his eyes: ‘My poor brother! How sad I am not to have arrived in time to embrace you once more before your death!’ And although Aladdin’s mother begged him to sit in the same place, he firmly refused. ‘Never will I sit there,’ he said, ‘but allow me to sit facing it, so that though I may be deprived of the satisfaction of seeing him there in person as the head of a family which is so dear to me, I can at least look at where he sat as though he were present.’ Aladdin’s mother pressed him no further, leaving him to sit where he pleased.
Once the magician had sat down in the place he had chosen, he began to talk to Aladdin’s mother. ‘My dear sister,’ he began, ‘don’t be surprised that you never saw me all the time you were married to my brother Mustafa, of happy memory; forty years ago I left this country, which is mine as well as that of my late brother. Since then, I have travelled in India, Arabia, Persia, Syria and Egypt, and have stayed in the finest cities, and then I went to Africa, where I stayed much longer. Eventually, as is natural – for a man, however far he is from the place of his birth, never forgets it any more than he forgets his parents and those with whom he was brought up – I was overcome by a strong desire to see my own family again and to come and embrace my brother. I felt I still had enough strength and courage to undertake such a long journey and so I delayed no longer and made my preparations to set out. I won’t tell you how long it has taken me, nor how many obstacles I have met with and the discomfort I suffered to get here. I will only tell you that in all my travels nothing has caused me more sorrow and suffering than hearing of the death of one whom I have always loved with a true brotherly love. I observed some of his features in the face of my nephew, your son, which is what made me single him out from among all the children with whom he was playing. He will have told you how I received the sad news that my brother was no longer alive; but one must praise God for all things and I find comfort in seeing him again in a son who retains his most distinctive features.’
When he saw how the memory of her husband affected Aladdin’s mother, bringing tears to her eyes, the magician changed the subject and, turning to Aladdin, asked him his name. ‘I am called Aladdin,’ he replied. ‘Well, then, Aladdin,’ the magician continued, ‘what do you do? Do you have a trade?’
At this question, Aladdin lowered his eyes, embarrassed. His mother, however, answered in his place. ‘Aladdin is an idle fellow,’ she said. ‘While he was alive, his father did his best to make him learn his trade but never succeeded. Since his death, despite everything I have tried to tell him, again and again, day after day, the only trade he knows is acting the vagabond and spending all his time playing with children, as you saw for yourself, mindless of the fact that he is no longer a child. And if you can’t make him feel ashamed and realize how pointless his behaviour is, I despair of him ever amounting to anything. He knows his father left nothing, and he can himself see that despite spinning cotton all day as I do, I have great difficulty in earning enough to buy us bread. In fact, I have decided that one of these days I am going to shut the door on him and send him off to fend for himself.’
After she had spoken, Aladdin’s mother burst into tears, whereupon the magician said to Aladdin: ‘This is no good, my nephew. You must think now about helping yourself and earning your own living. There are all sorts of trades; see if there isn’t one for which you have a particular inclination. Perhaps that of your father doesn’t appeal to you and you would be more suited to another: be quite open about this, I am just trying to help you.’ Seeing Aladdin remain silent, he went on: ‘If you want to be an honest man yet dislike the idea of learning a trade, I will provide you with a shop filled with rich cloths and fine fabrics. You can set about selling them, purchasing more goods with the money that you make, and in this manner you will live honourably. Think about it and then tell me frankly your opinion. You will find that I always keep my word.’
This offer greatly flattered Aladdin, who did not like manual work, all the more so since he had enough sense to know that shops with these kinds of goods were esteemed and frequented and that the merchants were well dressed and well regarded. So he told the magician, whom he thought of as his uncle, that his inclination was more in that direction than any other and that he would be indebted to him for the rest of his life for the help he was offering. ‘Since this occupation pleases you,’ the magician continued, ‘I will take you with me tomorrow and will have you dressed in rich garments appropriate for one of the wealthiest merchants of this city. The following day we will consider setting up a shop, as I think it should be done.’
Aladdin’s mother, who up until then had not believed the magician was her husband’s brother, now no longer doubted it after hearing all the favours he promised her son. She thanked him for his good intentions and, after exhorting Aladdin to make himself worthy of all the wealth his uncle had promised him, served supper. Throughout the meal, the talk ran upon the same subject until the magician, seeing the night was well advanced, took leave of the mother and the son and retired.
The next morning, he returned as he had promised to the widow of Mustafa the tailor and took Aladdin off with him to a wealthy merchant who sold only ready-made garments in all sorts of fine materials and for all ages and ranks. He made the merchant bring out clothes that would fit Aladdin and, after putting to one side those which pleased him best and rejecting the others that did not seem to him handsome enough, said to Aladdin: ‘My nephew, choose from among all these garments the one you like best.’ Aladdin, delighted with his new uncle’s generosity, picked one out which the magician then bought, together with all the necessary accessories, and paid for everything without bargaining.
When Aladdin saw himself so magnificently clothed from top to toe, he thanked his uncle profusely with all the thanks imaginable, and the magician repeated his promise never to abandon him and to keep him always with him. Indeed, he then took him to the most frequented parts of the city and in particular to those where the shops of the rich merchants were to be found. When he reached the street which had the shops with the richest cloths and finest fabrics, he said to Aladdin: ‘As you will soon be a merchant like these, it is a good idea for you to seek out their company so that they get to know you.’ The magician also showed him the largest and most beautiful mosques and took him to the khans where the foreign merchants lodged and to all the places in the sultan’s palace which he was free to enter. Finally, after they had wandered together through all the fairest places in the city, they came to the khan where the magician had taken lodgings. There they found several merchants whom the magician had got to know since his arrival and whom he had gathered together for the express purpose of entertaining them and at the same time introducing them to his so-called nephew.
The party did not finish until towards evening. Aladdin wanted to take leave of his uncle to return home, but the magician would not let him go back alone and himself accompanied him back to his mother. When his mother saw Aladdin in his fine new clothes, she was carried away in her delight and kept pouring a thousand blessings on the magician who had spent so much money on her child. ‘My dear relative,’ she exclaimed, ‘I don’t know how to thank you for your generosity. I know my son does not deserve all you have done for him and he would be quite unworthy of it if he was not grateful to you or failed to respond to your kind intention of giving him such a fine establishment. As for myself, once again I thank you with all my heart; I hope that you will live long enough to witness his gratitude, which he can best show by conducting himself in accordance with your good advice.’
‘Aladdin is a good boy,’ the magician replied. ‘He listens to me well enough and I believe he will turn out well. But one thing worries me – that I can’t carry out what I promised him tomorrow. Tomorrow is Friday, when the shops are closed, and there is no way we can think of renting one and stocking it at a time when the merchants are only thinking of entertaining themselves. So we will have to postpone our business until Saturday, but I will come and fetch him tomorrow and I will take him for a walk in the gardens where all the best people are usually to be found. Perhaps he has never seen the amusements that are to be had there. Up until now he has only been with children, but now he must see men.’ The magician took his leave of mother and son and departed. Aladdin, however, was so delighted at being so smartly turned out that he already began to anticipate the pleasure of walking in the gardens that lay around the city. In fact, he had never been outside the city gates and had never seen the surroundings of the city, which he knew to be pleasant and beautiful.
The next day, Aladdin got up and dressed himself very early so as to be ready to leave when his uncle came to fetch him. After waiting for what seemed to him a very long time, in his impatience he opened the door and stood on the doorstep to see if he could see the magician. As soon as he spotted him, Aladdin told his mother and said goodbye to her, before shutting the door and running to meet him.
The magician embraced Aladdin warmly when he saw him. ‘Come, my child,’ he said to him, smiling, ‘today I want to show you some wonderful things.’ He took him through a gate which led to some fine, large houses, or rather, magnificent palaces, which all had very beautiful gardens that people were free to enter. At each palace that they came to, he asked Aladdin whether he thought it beautiful, but Aladdin would forestall him as soon as another palace presented itself, saying: ‘Uncle, here’s another even more beautiful than those we have just seen.’ All the while, they were advancing ever deeper into the countryside and the wily magician, who wanted to go further still in order to carry out the plan he had in mind, took the opportunity of entering one of these gardens. Seating himself near a large pool into which a beautiful jet of water poured from the nostrils of a bronze lion, he pretended to be tired in order to get Aladdin to take a rest. ‘Dear nephew,’ he said to him, ‘you, too, must be tired. Let’s sit here and recover ourselves. We shall then have more strength to continue our walk.’
When they had sat down, the magician took out from a cloth attached to his belt some cakes and several kinds of fruit which he had brought with him as provisions, and spread them out on the edge of the pool. He shared a cake with Aladdin but let him choose for himself what fruits he fancied. As they partook of this light meal, he talked to his so-called nephew, giving him numerous pieces of advice, the gist of which was to exhort Aladdin to give up associating with children, telling him rather to approach men of prudence and wisdom, to listen to them and to profit from their conversation. ‘Soon you will be a man like them,’ he said, ‘and you can’t get into the habit too soon of following their example and speaking with good sense.’ When they had finished eating, they got up and resumed their walk through the gardens, which were separated from each other only by small ditches which defined their limits without impeding access – such was the mutual trust the inhabitants of the city enjoyed that there was no need for any other boundaries to guard against them harming each other’s interests. Gradually and without Aladdin being aware of it, the magician led him far beyond the gardens, making him pass through open country which took them very close to the mountains.
Aladdin had never before travelled so far and felt very weary from such a long walk. ‘Uncle,’ he asked the magician, ‘where are we going? We have left the gardens far behind and I can see nothing but mountains. If we go any further, I don’t know if I’ll have enough strength to return to the city.’ ‘Take heart, my nephew,’ replied the bogus uncle. ‘I want to show you another garden which beats all those you have just seen. It’s not far from here, just a step away, and when we get there you yourself will tell me how cross you would have been not to have seen it after having got so close to it.’ Aladdin let himself be persuaded and the magician led him even further on, all the while entertaining him with many amusing stories in order to make the journey less tedious for him and his fatigue more bearable.
At last they came to two mountains of a moderate height and size, separated by a narrow valley. This was the very spot to which the magician had wanted to take Aladdin so that he could carry out the grand plan which had brought him all the way from the furthest part of Africa to China. ‘We are not going any further,’ he told Aladdin. ‘I want to show you some extraordinary things, unknown to any other man, and when you have seen them, you will thank me for having witnessed so many marvels that no one else in all the world will have seen but you. While I am making a fire, you go and gather the driest bushes you can find for kindling.’
There was such a quantity of brushwood that Aladdin had soon amassed more than enough in the time that the magician was still starting up the fire. He set light to the pile and the moment the twigs caught fire, the magician threw on to them some incense that he had ready at hand. A dense smoke arose, which he made to disperse right and left by pronouncing some words of magic, none of which Aladdin could understand.
At the same moment, the earth gave a slight tremor and opened up in front of Aladdin and the magician, revealing a stone about one and a half feet square and about one foot deep, lying horizontally on the ground; fixed in the middle was a ring of bronze with which to lift it up. Aladdin, terrified at what was happening before his very eyes, would have fled if the magician had not held him back, for he was necessary for this mysterious business. He scolded him soundly and gave him such a blow that he was flung to the ground with such force that his front teeth were very nearly pushed back into his mouth, judging from the blood which poured out. Poor Aladdin, trembling all over and in tears, asked his uncle: ‘What have I done for you to hit me so roughly?’ ‘I have my reasons for doing this,’ replied the magician. ‘I am your uncle and at present take the place of your father. You shouldn’t answer me back.’ Softening his tone a little, he went on: ‘But, my child, don’t be afraid. All I ask is that you obey me exactly if you want to benefit from and be worthy of the great advantages I propose to give you.’ These fine promises somewhat calmed Aladdin’s fear and resentment, and when the magician saw he was completely reassured, he went on: ‘You have seen what I have done by virtue of my incense and by the words that I pronounced. Know now that beneath the stone that you see is hidden a treasure which is destined for you and which will one day make you richer than the greatest kings in all the world. It’s true, you are the only person in the world who is allowed to touch this stone and to lift it to go inside. Even I am not allowed to touch it and to set foot in the treasure house when it is opened. Consequently, you must carry out step by step everything I am going to tell you, not omitting anything. The matter is of the utmost importance, both for you and for me.’
Aladdin, still in a state of astonishment at all he saw and at what he had just heard the magician say about this treasure, which was to make him happy for evermore, got up, forgetting what had just happened to him, and asked: ‘Tell me then, uncle, what do I have to do? Command me, I am ready to obey you.’ ‘I am delighted, my child, that you have made this decision,’ replied the magician, embracing him. ‘Come here, take hold of this ring and lift up the stone.’ ‘But uncle, I am not strong enough – you must help me,’ Aladdin cried, to which his uncle replied: ‘No, you don’t need my help and we would achieve nothing, you and I, if I were to help you. You must lift it up all by yourself. Just say the names of your father and your grandfather as you hold the ring, and lift. You will find that it will come without any difficulty.’ Aladdin did as the magician told him. He lifted the stone with ease and laid it aside.
When the stone was removed, there appeared a cavity about three to four feet deep, with a small door and steps for descending further. ‘My son,’ said the magician to Aladdin, ‘follow carefully what I am going to tell you to do. Go down into this cave and when you get to the foot of the steps which you see, you will find an open door that will lead you into a vast vaulted chamber divided into three large rooms adjacent to each other. In each room, you will see, on the right and the left, four very large bronze jars, full of gold and silver – but take care not to touch them. Before you go into the first room, pull up your gown and wrap it tightly around you. Then when you have entered, go straight to the second room and the third room, without stopping. Above all, take great care not to go near the walls, let alone touch them with your gown, for if you do, you will immediately die; that’s why I told you to keep it tightly wrapped around you. At the end of the third room there is a gate which leads into a garden planted with beautiful trees laden with fruit. Walk straight ahead and cross this garden by a path which will take you to a staircase with fifty steps leading up to a terrace. When you are on the terrace, you will see in front of you a niche in which there is a lighted lamp. Take the lamp and put it out and when you have thrown away the wick and poured off the liquid, hold it close to your chest and bring it to me. Don’t worry about spoiling your clothes – the liquid is not oil and the lamp will be dry as soon as there is no more liquid in it. If you fancy any of the fruits in the garden, pick as many as you want – you are allowed to do so.’
When he had finished speaking, the magician pulled a ring from his finger and put it on one of Aladdin’s fingers, telling him it would protect him from any harm that might come to him if he followed all his instructions. ‘Be bold, my child,’ he then said. ‘Go down; you and I are both going to be rich for the rest of our lives.’
Lightly jumping into the cave, Aladdin went right down to the bottom of the steps. He found the three rooms which the magician had described to him, passing through them with the greatest of care for fear he would die if he failed scrupulously to carry out all he had been told. He crossed the garden without stopping, climbed up to the terrace, took the lamp alight in its niche, threw away the wick and the liquid, and as soon as this had dried up as the magician had told him, he held it to his chest. He went down from the terrace and stopped in the garden to look more closely at the fruits which he had seen only in passing. The trees were all laden with the most extraordinary fruit: each tree bore fruits of different colours – some were white; some shining and transparent like crystals; some pale or dark red; some green; some blue or violet; some light yellow; and there were many other colours. The white fruits were pearls; the shining, transparent ones diamonds; the dark red were rubies, while the lighter red were spinel rubies; the green were emeralds; the blue turquoises; the violet amethysts; the light yellow were pale sapphires; and there were many others, too. All of them were of a size and a perfection the like of which had never before been seen in the world. Aladdin, however, not recognizing either their quality or their worth, was unmoved by the sight of these fruits, which were not to his taste – he would have preferred real figs or grapes, or any of the other excellent fruit common in China. Besides, he was not yet of an age to appreciate their worth, believing them to be but coloured glass and therefore of little value. But the many wonderful shades and the extraordinary size and beauty of each fruit made him want to pick one of every colour. In fact, he picked several of each, filling both pockets as well as two new purses which the magician had bought him at the same time as the new clothes he had given him so that everything he had should be new. And as the two purses would not fit in his pockets, which were already full, he attached them to either side of his belt. Some fruits he even wrapped in the folds of his belt, which was made of a wide strip of silk wound several times around his waist, arranging them so that they could not fall out. Nor did he forget to cram some around his chest, between his gown and his shirt.
Thus weighed down with such, to him, unknown wealth, Aladdin hurriedly retraced his steps through the three rooms so as not to keep the magician waiting too long. After crossing them as cautiously as he had before, he ascended the stairs he had come down and arrived at the entrance of the cave, where the magician was impatiently awaiting him. As soon as he saw him, Aladdin cried out: ‘Uncle, give me your hand, I beg of you, to help me climb out.’ ‘Son,’ the magician replied, ‘first, give me the lamp, as it could get in your way.’ ‘Forgive me, uncle,’ Aladdin rejoined, ‘but it’s not in my way; I will give it you as soon as I get out.’ But the magician persisted in wanting Aladdin to hand him the lamp before pulling him out of the cave, while Aladdin, weighed down by this lamp and by the fruits he had stowed about his person, stubbornly refused to give it to him until he was out of the cave. Then the magician, in despair at the young man’s resistance, fell into a terrible fury: throwing a little of the incense over the fire, which he had carefully kept alight, he uttered two magic words and immediately the stone which served to block the entrance to the cave moved back in its place, with the earth above it, just as it had been when the magician and Aladdin had first arrived there.
Now this magician was certainly not the brother of Mustafa the tailor, as he had proudly claimed, nor, consequently, was he Aladdin’s uncle. But he did indeed come from Africa, where he was born, and as Africa is a country where more than anywhere else the influence of magic persists, he had applied himself to it from his youth, and after forty years or so of practising magic and geomancy and burning incense and of reading books on the subject, he had finally discovered that there was somewhere in the world a magic lamp, the possession of which, could he lay hands on it, would make him more powerful than any king in the world. In a recent geomantic experiment, he had discovered that this lamp was in an underground cave in the middle of China, in the spot and with all the circumstances we have just seen. Convinced of the truth of his discovery, he set out from the furthest part of Africa, as we have related. After a long and painful journey, he had come to the city that was closest to the treasure, but although the lamp was certainly in the spot which he had read about, he was not allowed to remove it himself, he had ascertained, nor could he himself enter the underground cave where it was to be found. Someone else would have to go down into it, take the lamp and then deliver it into his hands. That is why he had turned to Aladdin, who seemed to him to be a young boy of no consequence, just right to carry out for him the task which he wanted him to do. He had resolved, once he had the lamp in his hands, to perform the final burning of incense that we have mentioned and to utter the two magic words that would produce the effect which we have seen, sacrificing poor Aladdin to his avarice and wickedness so as to have no witness. The blow he gave Aladdin and the authority he had assumed over him were only meant to accustom him to fear him and to obey him precisely so that, when he asked him for the famed lamp, Aladdin would immediately give it to him, but what happened was the exact opposite of what he had intended. In his haste, the magician had resorted to such wickedness in order to get rid of poor Aladdin because he was afraid that if he argued any longer with him, someone would hear them and would make public what he wanted to keep secret.
When he saw his wonderful hopes and plans for ever wrecked, the magician had no other choice but to return to Africa, which is what he did the very same day, taking a roundabout route so as to avoid going back into the city he had left with Aladdin. For what he feared was being seen by people who might have noticed him walking out with this boy and now returning without him.
To all appearances, that should be the end of the story and we should hear no more about Aladdin, but the very person who had thought he had got rid of Aladdin for ever had forgotten that he had placed on his finger a ring which could help to save him. In fact it was this ring, of whose properties Aladdin was totally unaware, that was the cause of his salvation, and it is astonishing that the loss of it together with that of the lamp did not throw the magician into a state of complete despair. But magicians are so used to disasters and to events turning out contrary to their desires that all their lives they forever feed their minds on smoke, fancies and phantoms.
After all the endearments and the favours his false uncle had shown him, Aladdin little expected such wickedness and was left in a state of bewilderment that can be more easily imagined than described in words. Finding himself buried alive, he called upon his uncle a thousand times, crying out that he was ready to give him the lamp, but his cries were in vain and could not possibly be heard by anyone. And so he remained in the darkness and gloom. At last, when his tears had abated somewhat, he descended to the bottom of the stairs in the cave to look for light in the garden through which he had passed earlier; but the wall which had been opened by a spell had closed and sealed up by another spell. Aladdin groped around several times, to the left and to the right, but could find no door. With renewed cries and tears, he sat down on the steps in the cave, all hope gone of ever seeing light again and, moreover, in the sad certainty that he would pass from the darkness where he was into the darkness of approaching death.
For two days, Aladdin remained in this state, eating and drinking nothing. At last, on the third day, believing death to be inevitable, he raised his hands in prayer and, resigning himself completely to God’s will, he cried out: ‘There is no strength nor power save in Great and Almighty God!’
However, just as he joined his hands in prayer, Aladdin unknowingly rubbed the ring which the magician had placed on his finger and of whose power he was as yet unaware. Immediately, from the ground beneath him, there rose up before him a jinni of enormous size and with a terrifying expression, who continued to grow until his head touched the roof of the chamber and who addressed these words to Aladdin: ‘What do you want? Here am I, ready to obey you, your slave and the slave of all those who wear the ring on their finger, a slave like all the other slaves of the ring.’
At any other time and on any other occasion, Aladdin, who was not used to such visions, would perhaps have been overcome with terror and struck dumb at the sight of such an extraordinary apparition, but now, preoccupied solely with the danger of the present situation, he replied without hesitation: ‘Whoever you are, get me out of this place, if you have the power to do so.’ No sooner had he uttered these words than the earth opened up and he found himself outside the cave at the very spot to which the magician had led him.
Not surprisingly, Aladdin, after so long spent in pitch darkness, had difficulty at first in adjusting to broad daylight, but his eyes gradually became accustomed to it. When he looked around, he was very surprised not to find any opening in the ground; he could not understand how all of a sudden he should find himself transported from the depths of the earth. Only the spot where the kindling had been lit allowed him to tell roughly where the cave had been. Then, turning in the direction of the city, he spotted it in the middle of the gardens which surrounded it. He also recognized the path along which the magician had brought him and which he proceeded to follow, giving thanks to God at finding himself once again back in the world to which he had so despaired of ever returning.
When he reached the city, it was with some difficulty that he dragged himself home. He went in to his mother, but the joy of seeing her again, together with the weak state he was in from not having eaten for nearly three days, caused him to fall into a faint that lasted for some time. Seeing him in this state, his mother, who had already mourned him as lost, if not dead, did all she could to revive him. At last Aladdin recovered consciousness and the first words he addressed to her were to ask her to bring him something to eat, for it was three days since he had had anything at all. His mother brought him what she had, and, placing it before him, said: ‘Don’t hurry, now, because that’s dangerous. Take it easy and eat a little at a time; eke it out, however much you need it. I don’t want you even to speak to me; you will have enough time to tell me everything that happened to you when you have quite recovered. I am so comforted at seeing you again after the terrible state I have been in since Friday and after all the trouble I went to to discover what had happened to you as soon as I saw it was night and you hadn’t come home.’
Aladdin followed his mother’s advice and ate and drank slowly, a little at a time. When he had finished, he said to his mother: ‘I would have been very cross with you for so readily abandoning me to the mercy of a man who planned to kill me and who, at this very moment, is quite certain either that I am no longer alive or that I will die at first light. But you believed him to be my uncle and so did I. How could we have thought otherwise of a man who overwhelmed me with both affection and gifts and who made me so many other fair promises? Now, mother, you must see he is nothing but a traitor, a wretch and a cheat. In all the gifts he gave me and the promises he made he had but one single aim – to kill me, as I said, without either of us guessing the reason why. For my part, I can assure you that I didn’t do anything to deserve the slightest ill treatment. You will understand this yourself when you hear my faithful account of all that happened since I left you, right up to the time he came to execute his deadly plan.’
Aladdin then began to tell his mother all that had happened to him since the previous Friday, when the magician had come to take him with him to see the palaces and gardens outside the city, and what had happened along the way until they came to the spot by the two mountains where the magician’s great miracle was to take place. He told her how, with some incense cast into the fire and a few words of magic, the earth had opened up, straight away, revealing the entrance to a cave which led to a priceless treasure. He did not leave out the blow he had received from the magician, nor how, once the magician had calmed down a little, he had placed his ring on Aladdin’s finger and, making him countless promises, had got him to go down into the cave. He left out nothing of all that he had seen as he passed through the three rooms, in the garden and on the terrace from where he had taken the magic lamp. At this, he pulled the lamp from his clothes to show to his mother, together with the transparent fruits and those of different colours which he had gathered in the garden on his return and with which he had filled the two purses that he now gave her, though she did not make much of them. For these fruits were really precious stones; in the light of the lamp which lit up the room they shone like the sun and glittered and sparkled in such a way as to testify to their great worth, but Aladdin’s mother was no more aware of this than he was. She had been brought up in very humble circumstances and her husband had never been wealthy enough to give her jewels and stones of this kind. Nor had she ever seen such things worn by any of her female relatives or neighbours. Consequently, it is not surprising that she should regard them as things of little value – a pleasure to the eye, at the very most, due to all their different colours – and so Aladdin put them behind one of the cushions of the sofa on which he was seated. He finished the account of his adventures by telling her how, when he returned to the entrance to the cave, ready to come out, he had refused to hand over to the magician the lamp that he wanted to have, at which the cave’s entrance had immediately closed up, thanks to the incense which the magician had scattered over the fire that he had kept lit and to the words he had pronounced. Aladdin could not go on without tears coming to his eyes as he described to her the wretched state in which he found himself after being buried alive in that fatal cave, right up to when he emerged and returned to the world, so to speak, as the result of having touched the ring (of whose powers he was still unaware). When he had come to the end of his story, he said to his mother: ‘I don’t need to tell you any more; you know the rest. That was my adventure and the danger I was in since you last saw me.’
Aladdin’s mother listened patiently and without interrupting to this wonderful and amazing story which at the same time was so painful for a mother who loved her son so tenderly despite all his faults. However, at the most disturbing points when the magician’s treachery was further revealed, she could not prevent herself from showing, with signs of indignation, how much she hated him. As soon as Aladdin had finished, she broke out into a thousand reproaches against the impostor, calling him a traitor, trickster, murderer, barbarian – a magician, an enemy and a destroyer of mankind. ‘Yes, my son,’ she added, ‘he’s a magician and magicians are public menaces; they have dealings with demons through their spells and their sorcery. Praise the Lord, Who wished to preserve you from everything that his great wickedness might have done to you! You should indeed give thanks to Him for having so favoured you. You would have surely died had you not remembered Him and implored Him for His help.’ She said much more besides, all the while execrating the magician’s treachery towards her son. But as she spoke, she noticed that Aladdin, who had not slept for three days, needed some rest. She made him go to bed and went to bed herself shortly afterwards.
That night Aladdin, having had no rest in the underground cave where he had been buried and left to die, fell into a deep sleep from which he did not awake until late the following day. He arose and the first thing he said to his mother was that he needed to eat and that she could not give him a greater pleasure than to offer him breakfast. ‘Alas, my son,’ she sighed, ‘I haven’t got so much as a piece of bread to give you – yesterday evening you ate the few provisions there were in the house. But be patient for a little longer and I will soon bring you some food. I have some cotton yarn I have spun. I will sell it to buy you some bread and something else for our dinner.’ ‘Mother,’ said Aladdin, ‘leave your cotton yarn for some other occasion and give me the lamp I brought yesterday. I will go and sell it and the money I get will help provide us with enough for both breakfast and lunch, and perhaps also for our supper.’
Taking the lamp from where she had put it, Aladdin’s mother said to her son: ‘Here it is, but it’s very dirty. With a little cleaning I think it would be worth a little more.’ So she took some water and some fine sand in order to clean it, but no sooner had she begun to rub it than all of a sudden there rose up in front of them a hideous jinni of enormous size who, in a ringing voice, addressed her thus: ‘What do you want? Here am I, ready to obey you, your slave and the slave of all those who hold the lamp in their hands, I and the other slaves of the lamp.’
But Aladdin’s mother was in no state to reply; so great was her terror at the sight of the jinni’s hideous and frightening countenance that at the first words he uttered she fell down in a faint. Aladdin, on the other hand, had already witnessed a similar apparition while in the cave, and so, wasting no time and not stopping to think, he promptly seized the lamp. Replying in place of his mother, in a firm voice he said to the jinni: ‘I am hungry, bring me something to eat.’ The jinni disappeared and a moment later returned, bearing on his head a large silver bowl, together with twelve dishes also of silver, piled high with delicious foods and six large loaves as white as snow, and in his hands were two bottles of exquisite wine and two silver cups. He set everything down on the sofa and then disappeared.
This all happened so quickly that Aladdin’s mother had not yet recovered from her swoon when the jinni disappeared for the second time. Aladdin, who had already begun to throw water on her face, without effect, renewed his efforts to revive her, and whether it was that her wits which had left her had already been restored or that the smell of the dishes which the jinni had brought had contributed in some measure, she immediately recovered consciousness. ‘Mother,’ said Aladdin, ‘don’t worry. Get up and come and eat, for here is something to give you heart again and which at the same time will satisfy my great hunger. We mustn’t let such good food grow cold, so come and eat.’
Aladdin’s mother was extremely surprised when she saw the large bowl, the twelve dishes, the six loaves, the two bottles and the two cups, and when she smelt the delicious aromas which came from all these dishes. ‘My son,’ she asked Aladdin, ‘where does all this abundance come from and to whom do we owe thanks for such great generosity? Can the sultan have learned of our poverty and had compassion on us?’ ‘Mother,’ Aladdin replied, ‘let us sit down and eat; you need it as much as I do. When we have eaten, I will tell you.’ They sat down and ate with all the more appetite in that neither had ever sat down before to such a well-laden table.
During the meal, Aladdin’s mother never tired of looking at and admiring the large bowl and the dishes, although she did not know for sure whether they were of silver or some other metal, so unaccustomed was she to seeing things of that kind, and, to tell the truth, as she could not appreciate their value, which was unknown to her, it was the novelty of it all that held her admiration. Nor did her son Aladdin know any more about them than she did.
Aladdin and his mother, thinking to have but a simple breakfast, were still at table at dinner time; such excellent dishes had given them an appetite and while the food was still warm, they thought they might just as well put the two meals together so as not to have to eat twice. When this double meal was over, there remained enough not only for supper but for two equally large meals the next day.
After she had cleared away and had put aside those dishes they had not touched, Aladdin’s mother came and seated herself beside her son on the sofa. ‘Aladdin,’ she said to him, ‘I am expecting you to satisfy my impatience to hear the account you promised me.’ Aladdin then proceeded to tell her exactly what had happened between the jinni and himself while she was in a swoon, right up to the moment she regained consciousness.
Aladdin’s mother was greatly astonished by what her son told her and by the appearance of the jinni. ‘But, Aladdin, what do you mean by these jinn of yours?’ she said. ‘Never in all my life have I heard of anyone I know ever having seen one. By what chance did that evil jinni come and show itself to me? Why did it come to me and not to you, when it had already appeared to you in the treasure cave?’
‘Mother,’ replied Aladdin, ‘the jinni who has just appeared to you is not the same as the one that appeared to me; they look like each other to a certain extent, being both as large as giants, but they are completely different in appearance and dress. Also, they have different masters. If you remember, the one I saw called himself the slave of the ring which I have on my finger, while the one you have just seen called himself the slave of the lamp which you had in your hands. But I don’t believe you can have heard him; in fact, I think you fainted as soon as he began to speak.’
‘What?’ cried his mother. ‘It’s your lamp, then, that made this evil jinni speak to me rather than to you? Take it out of my sight and put it wherever you like; I don’t want ever to touch it again. I would rather have it thrown out or sold than run the risk of dying of fright touching it. If you were to listen to me, you would also get rid of the ring. One should not have anything to do with jinn; they are demons and our Prophet has said so.’
Aladdin, however, replied: ‘Mother, with your permission, for the moment I am not going to sell – as I was ready to do – a lamp which is going to be so useful to both you and me. Don’t you see what it has just brought us? We must let it go on bringing us things to eat and to support us. You should see, as I have seen, that it was not for nothing that my wicked and bogus uncle went to such lengths and undertook such a long and painful journey, since it was to gain possession of this magic lamp, preferring it above all the gold and silver which he knew to be in the rooms as he told me and which I myself saw. For he knew only too well the worth and value of this lamp than to ask for anything other than such a rich treasure. Since chance has revealed to us its merits, let’s use it to our advantage, but quietly and in a way that will not draw attention to ourselves nor attract the envy and jealousy of our neighbours. I will take it away, since the jinn terrify you so much, and put it somewhere where I can find it when we need it. As for the ring, I can’t bring myself to throw it away either; without the ring, you would never have seen me again. I may be alive now but without it I might not have lasted for very long. So please let me keep it carefully, always wearing it on my finger. Who knows whether some other danger may happen to me that neither of us can foresee and from which it will rescue me?’ Aladdin’s reasoning seemed sound enough to his mother, who could find nothing to add. ‘My son,’ she said, ‘you can do as you like. As for myself, I wouldn’t have anything to do with jinn. I tell you, I wash my hands of them and won’t speak to you about them again.’
The next evening, there was nothing left after supper of the splendid provisions brought by the jinni. So, early the following day, Aladdin, who did not want to be overtaken by hunger, slipped one of the silver dishes under his clothes and went out to try to sell it. As he went on his way, he met a Jew whom he drew aside and, showing him the dish, asked him if he wanted to buy it. The Jew, a shrewd and cunning man, took the dish, examined it and, discovering it to be good silver, asked Aladdin how much he thought it was worth. Aladdin, who did not know its value, never having dealt in this kind of merchandise, happily told him that he was well aware what it was worth and that he trusted in his good faith. The Jew found himself confused by Aladdin’s ingeniousness. Uncertain as to whether Aladdin knew what the dish was made of and its value, he took out of his purse a piece of gold, which at the very most was equal to no more than a seventy-second of the dish’s true value, and gave it to him. Aladdin seized the coin with such eagerness and, as soon as he had it in his grasp, took himself off so swiftly that the Jew, not content with the exorbitant profit he had made with this purchase, was very cross at not having realized that Aladdin was unaware of the value of what he had sold him and that he could have given him far less for it. He was about to go after the young man to try to recover some change from his gold, but Aladdin had run off and was already so far away that he would have had difficulty in catching up with him.
On his way home, Aladdin stopped off at a baker’s shop where he bought some bread for his mother and himself, paying for it with the gold coin, for which the baker gave him some change. When he came to his mother, he gave it her and she then went off to the market to buy the necessary provisions for the two of them to live on for the next few days.
They continued to live thriftily in this way; that is, whenever money ran out in the house, Aladdin sold off all the dishes to the Jew – just as he had sold the first one to him – one after the other, up to the twelfth and last dish. The Jew, having offered a piece of gold for the first dish, did not dare give him any less for the rest, for fear of losing such a good windfall, and so he paid the same for them all. When the money for the remaining dish was completely spent, Aladdin finally had recourse to the large bowl, which alone weighed ten times as much as each dish. He would have taken it to his usual merchant but was prevented from doing so by its enormous weight. So he was obliged to seek out the Jew, whom he brought to his mother. The Jew, after examining the weight of the bowl, there and then counted out for him ten gold pieces, with which Aladdin was satisfied.
As long as they lasted, these ten gold coins were used for the daily expenses of the household. Aladdin, who had been accustomed to an idle life, had stopped playing with his young friends ever since his adventure with the magician and spent his days walking around or chatting with the people with whom he had become acquainted. Sometimes he would call in at the shops of the great merchants, where he would listen to the conversation of the important people who stopped there or who used the shops as a kind of rendezvous, and these conversations gradually gave him a smattering of worldly knowledge.
When all ten coins had been spent, Aladdin had recourse to the lamp once again. Taking it in his hand, he looked for the same spot his mother had touched and, recognizing it by the mark left on it by the sand, he rubbed it as she had done. Immediately the selfsame jinni appeared in front of him, but as he had rubbed it more lightly than his mother had done, the jinni consequently spoke to him more softly. ‘What do you want?’ he asked in the same words as before. ‘Here am I, ready to obey you, your slave and the slave of all those who hold the lamp in their hands, I and the other slaves of the lamp.’
‘I’m hungry,’ answered Aladdin. ‘Bring me something to eat.’ The jinni disappeared and a little later he reappeared, laden with the same bowls and dishes as before, which he placed on the sofa and promptly disappeared again.
Aladdin’s mother, warned of her son’s plan, had deliberately gone out on some errand in order not to be in the house when the jinni put in his appearance. When she returned a little later and saw the table and the many dishes on it, she was almost as surprised by the miraculous effect of the lamp as she had been on the first occasion. They both sat down to eat and after the meal there was still plenty of food for them to live on for the next two days.
When Aladdin saw there was no longer any bread or other provisions in the house to live on nor money with which to buy any, he took a silver dish and went to look for the Jew he knew in order to sell it to him. On his way there, he passed in front of the shop of a goldsmith, a man respected for his age, an honest man of great probity. Noticing him, the goldsmith called out to him and made him come in. ‘My son,’ he said, ‘I have frequently seen you pass by, laden, just like now, on your way to a certain Jew, and then shortly after coming back, empty-handed. I imagine that you sell him something that you are carrying. But perhaps you don’t know that this Jew is a cheat, even more of a cheat than other Jews, and that no one who knows him wants anything to do with him. I only tell you this as a favour; if you would like to show me what you are carrying now and if it is something I can sell, I will faithfully pay you its true price. Otherwise, I will direct you to other merchants who will not cheat you.’
The hope of getting more money for the dish made Aladdin draw it out from among his clothes and show it to the goldsmith. The old man, who at once recognized the dish to be of fine silver, asked him whether he had sold similar dishes to the Jew and how much the latter had paid him for them. Aladdin naively told him he had sold the Jew twelve dishes, for each of which he had received only one gold coin from him. ‘The robber!’ exclaimed the goldsmith, before adding: ‘My son, what is done is done. Forget it. But when I show you the true value of your dish, which is made of the finest silver we use in our shops, you will realize how much the Jew has cheated you.’
The goldsmith took his scales, weighed the dish and, after explaining to Aladdin how much an ounce of silver was worth and how many parts there were in an ounce, he remarked that, according to the weight of the dish, it was worth seventy-two pieces of gold, which he promptly counted out to him in cash. ‘There, here is the true value of your dish,’ he told Aladdin. ‘If you don’t believe it, you can go to any of our goldsmiths you please and if he tells you it is worth more, I promise to pay you double that. Our only profit comes from the workmanship of the silver we buy, and that’s something even the most fair-minded Jews don’t do.’
Aladdin thanked the goldsmith profusely for the friendly advice he had just given him which was so much to his advantage. From then on, he only went to him to sell the other dishes and the bowl, and the true price was always paid him according to the weight of each dish. However, although Aladdin and his mother had an inexhaustible source of money from their lamp from which to obtain as much as they wanted as soon as supplies began to run out, nonetheless they continued to live as frugally as before, except that Aladdin would put something aside in order to maintain himself in an honest manner and to provide himself with all that was needed for their small household. His mother, for her part, spent on her clothes only what she earned from spinning cotton. Consequently, with them both living so modestly, it is easy to work out how long the money from the twelve dishes and the bowl would have lasted, according to the price Aladdin sold them for to the goldsmith. And so they lived in this manner for several years, aided, from time to time, by the good use Aladdin made of the lamp.
During this time, Aladdin assiduously sought out people of importance who met in the shops of the biggest merchants of gold and silver cloth, of silks, of the finest linens and of jewellery, and sometimes joined in their discussions. In this way, he completed his education and insensibly adopted the manners of high society. It was at the jewellers’, in particular, that he discovered his error in thinking that the transparent fruits he had gathered in the garden where he had found the lamp were only coloured glass, learning that they were stones of great price. By observing the buying and selling of all kinds of gems in their shops, he got to know about them and about their value. But he did not see any there similar to his in size and beauty, and so he realized that instead of pieces of glass which he had considered as mere trifles, he was in possession of a treasure of inestimable value. He was prudent enough not to speak about this to anyone, not even to his mother; and there is no doubt that it was by keeping silent that he rose to the heights of good fortune, as we shall see in due course.
One day, when he was walking around in a part of the city, Aladdin heard a proclamation from the sultan ordering people to shut all their shops and houses and stay indoors until Princess Badr al-Budur, the daughter of the sultan, had passed on her way to the baths and had returned from them.
This public announcement stirred Aladdin’s curiosity; he wanted to see the princess’s face but he could only do so by placing himself in the house of some acquaintance and looking through a lattice screen, which would not suffice, because the princess, according to custom, would be wearing a veil over her face when going to the baths. So he thought up a successful ruse: he went and hid himself behind the door to the baths, which was so placed that he could not help seeing her pass straight in front of him.
Aladdin did not have to wait long: the princess appeared and he watched her through a crack that was large enough for him to see without being seen. She was accompanied by a large crowd of her attendants, women and eunuchs, who walked on both sides of her and in her train. When she was three or four steps from the door to the baths, she lifted the veil which covered her face and which greatly inconvenienced her, and in this way she allowed Aladdin to see her all the more easily as she came towards him.
Until that moment, the only other woman Aladdin had seen with her face uncovered was his mother, who was aged and who never had such beautiful features as to make him believe that other women existed who were beautiful. He may well have heard that there were women of surpassing beauty, but for all the words one uses to extol the merits of a beautiful woman, they never make the same impression as a beautiful woman herself.
When Aladdin set eyes on Badr al-Budur, any idea that all women more or less resembled his mother flew from his mind; he found his feelings were now quite different and his heart could not resist the inclinations aroused in him by such an enchanting vision. Indeed, the princess was the most captivating dark-haired beauty to be found in all the world; her large, sparkling eyes were set on a level and full of life; her look was gentle and modest, her faultless nose perfectly proportioned, her mouth small, with its ruby lips charming in their pleasing symmetry; in a word, the regularity of all her facial features was nothing short of perfection. Consequently, one should not be surprised that Aladdin was so dazzled and almost beside himself at the sight of so many wonders hitherto unknown to him united in one face. Added to all these perfections, the princess also had a magnificent figure and bore herself with a regal air which, at the mere sight of her, would draw to her the respect that was her due.
After the princess had entered the baths, Aladdin remained for a while confused and in a kind of trance, recalling and imprinting deeply on his mind the image of the vision which had so captivated him and which had penetrated the very depths of his heart. He eventually came to and, after reflecting that the princess had now gone past and that it would be pointless for him to stay there in order to see her when she came out of the baths, for she would be veiled and have her back to him, he decided to abandon his post and go away.
When he returned home, Aladdin could not conceal his worry and confusion from his mother, who, noticing his state and surprised to see him so unusually sad and dazed, asked him whether something had happened to him or whether he felt ill. Aladdin made no reply but slumped down on the sofa, where he remained in the same position, still occupied in conjuring up the charming vision of the princess. His mother, who was preparing the supper, did not press him further. When it was ready, she served it up near to him on the sofa, and sat down to eat. However, noticing he was not paying any attention, she told him to come to the table and eat and it was only with great difficulty that he agreed. He ate much less than usual, keeping his eyes lowered and in such profound silence that his mother was unable to draw a single word out of him in reply to all the questions she asked him in an attempt to discover the reason for such an extraordinary change in his behaviour. After supper, she tried to ask him once again the reason for his great gloom but was unable to learn a thing and Aladdin decided to go to bed rather than give his mother the slightest satisfaction in the matter.
We will not go into how Aladdin, smitten with the beauty and charms of Princess Badr, spent the night, but will only observe that the following day, as he was seated on the sofa facing his mother – who was spinning cotton, as was her custom – he spoke to her as follows: ‘Mother,’ he said, ‘I am breaking the silence I have kept since my return from the city yesterday because I realize it has been worrying you. I wasn’t ill, as you seemed to think, and I am not ill now, but I can’t tell you what I was feeling then, and what I am still feeling is something worse than any illness. I don’t really know what this is, but I’m sure that what you are going to hear will tell you what it is.’ He went on: ‘No one in this quarter knew, and so you, too, cannot have known, that yesterday evening the daughter of the sultan, Princess Badr, was to go to the baths. I learned this bit of news while walking around the city. An order was proclaimed to shut up the shops and everyone was to stay indoors, so as to pay due respect to the princess and to allow her free passage in the streets through which she was to pass. As I was not far from the baths, I was curious to see her with her face uncovered, and so the idea came to me to go and stand behind the door to the baths, thinking that she might remove her veil when she was ready to go in. You know how the door is placed, so you can guess how I could see her quite easily if what I imagined were to happen. And indeed, as she entered she lifted her veil and I had the good fortune and the greatest satisfaction in the world to see this lovely princess. That, then, mother, is the real reason for the state you saw me in yesterday when I came home and the cause for my silence up till now. I love the princess with a passion I can’t describe to you; and as this burning passion grows all the time, I feel it cannot be assuaged by anything other than the possession of the lovely Badr; which is why I have decided to ask the sultan for her hand in marriage.’
Aladdin’s mother listened fairly carefully to what her son told her, up to the last few words. When she heard his plan to ask for the princess’s hand, she could not help interrupting him by bursting out laughing. Aladdin was about to go on but, interrupting him again, she exclaimed: ‘What are you thinking of, my son? You must have gone out of your mind to talk to me about such a thing!’
‘Mother,’ replied Aladdin, ‘I can assure you I have not lost my senses but am quite in my right mind. I expected you would reproach me with madness and extravagance – and you did – but that will not stop me telling you once again that I have made up my mind to ask the sultan for the princess’s hand in marriage.’
‘My son,’ his mother continued, addressing him very seriously, ‘I can’t indeed help telling you that you quite forget yourself; and even if you are still resolved to carry out this plan, I don’t see through whom you would dare to make this request to the sultan.’ ‘Through you yourself,’ Aladdin replied without hesitating. ‘Through me!’ exclaimed his mother, in surprise and astonishment. ‘I go to the sultan? Ah, I would take very great care to avoid such an undertaking! And who are you, my son,’ she continued, ‘to be so bold as to think of the daughter of your sultan? Have you forgotten that you are the son of a tailor, among the least of his capital’s citizens, and of a mother whose forebears were no more exalted? Don’t you know that sultans don’t deign to give away their daughters in marriage even to the sons of sultans, unless they are expected to reign one day themselves?’ ‘Mother,’ replied Aladdin, ‘I have already told you that I had foreseen all that you have said or would say, so despite all your remonstrances, nothing will make me change my mind. I have told you that through your mediation I would ask for Princess Badr’s hand in marriage: this is a favour I ask of you, with all the respect I owe you, and I beg you not to refuse, unless you prefer to see me die rather than give me life a second time.’
Aladdin’s mother felt very embarrassed when she saw how stubbornly he persisted in such a foolhardy plan. ‘My son,’ she said, ‘I am your mother and, as a good mother who brought you into the world, there is nothing right and proper and in keeping with our circumstances that I would not be prepared to do out of my love for you. If it’s a matter of speaking about marriage to the daughter of one of our neighbours, whose circumstances are equal or similar to ours, then I would gladly do everything in my power; but again, to succeed, you would need to have some assets or income, or you should know some trade. When poor people like us want to get married, the first thing they need to think about is their livelihood. But you, not reflecting on your humble status, the little you have to commend you and your lack of money, you aspire to the highest degree of fortune and are so presumptuous as to demand no less than the hand in marriage of the daughter of your sovereign – who with a single word can crush you and bring about your downfall. I won’t speak of what concerns you; it is you who should think what you should do, if you have any sense. I come to what concerns me. How could such an extraordinary idea as that of wanting me to go to the sultan and propose that he give you the princess’s, his daughter’s, hand in marriage ever have come into your head? Supposing I had the – I won’t say courage – effrontery to present myself to his majesty to put such an extravagant request to him, to whom would I go to for an introduction? Don’t you think that the first person to whom I spoke about it would treat me as a mad woman and throw me out indignantly, as I deserved? And what about seeking an audience with the sultan? I know there is no difficulty when one goes to him to seek justice and that he readily grants it to his subjects when they ask him for it. I also know that when one goes to ask him a favour, he grants it gladly, when he sees that one has deserved it and is worthy of it. But is that the position you are in and do you think you merit the favour that you want me to ask for you? Are you worthy of it? What have you done for your sultan or for your country? How have you distinguished yourself? If you haven’t done anything to deserve so great a favour – of which, anyhow, you are not worthy – how could I have the audacity to ask him for it? How could I so much as open my mouth to propose it to the sultan? His majestic presence alone and the brilliance of his court would make me dry up immediately – I, who used to tremble before my late husband, your father, when I had to ask him for the slightest thing. There is something else you haven’t thought about, my son, and that is that one does not go to ask a favour of the sultan without bearing a present. A present has at least this advantage that, if, for whatever reason, he refuses the favour, he at least listens to the request and to whoever makes it. But what present do you have to offer? And if you had something worthy of the slightest attention from so great a ruler, would your gift adequately represent the scale of the favour you want to ask him? Think about this and reflect that you are aspiring to something which you cannot possibly obtain.’
Aladdin listened quietly to everything his mother had to say in her attempt to make him give up his plan. Finally, after reflecting on all the points she had made in remonstrating with him, he replied to her, saying: ‘Mother, I admit it’s great rashness on my part to carry my pretensions as far as I am doing, and that it’s very inconsiderate of me to insist with such heat and urgency on your going and putting my proposal of marriage to the sultan without first taking the appropriate measures for you to obtain a favourable and successful audience with him. Please forgive me, but don’t be surprised if, in the strength of the passion which possesses me, I did not at first envisage all that could help me procure the happiness I seek. I love Princess Badr beyond anything you can imagine, or rather, I adore her and will continue to persevere in my plan to marry her – my mind is quite made up and fixed in this matter. I am grateful to you for the opening you have just given me; I see it as the first step which will help me obtain the happy outcome I promise myself. You tell me that it is not customary to go before the sultan without bearing him a present, and that I have nothing which is worthy of him. I agree with you about the present, and I admit I hadn’t thought about it. As for your telling me that I have nothing I can possibly offer him, don’t you think, mother, that what I brought back with me the day I was saved from almost inevitable death could not make a very nice gift for the sultan? I am talking about what I brought back in the two purses and in my belt, which you and I both took to be pieces of coloured glass. I have since learned better and I can tell you, mother, that these are jewels of inestimable value, fit only for great kings. I discovered their worth by frequenting jewellers’ shops, and you can take my word for it. None of all those I have seen in the shops of our jewellers can compare in size or in beauty to those we possess, and yet they sell them for exorbitant prices. The fact is that neither you nor I know what ours are worth, but however much that is, as far as I can judge from the little experience I have gained, I am convinced that the present will please the sultan very much. You have a porcelain dish large enough and of the right shape to contain the jewels; fetch it and let’s see the effect they make when we arrange them according to their different colours.’
Aladdin’s mother fetched the porcelain dish and Aladdin took out the stones from the two purses and arranged them in it. The effect they made in full daylight, by the variety of their colours, their brilliance and sparkle, was such as to almost dazzle them both and they were greatly astonished, for neither of them had seen the stones except in the light of a lamp. It is true that Aladdin had seen them hanging on the trees like fruit, which must have made an enchanting sight; but as he was still a boy, he had only thought of these stones as trinkets to be played with, and that is the only way he had thought of them, knowing no better.
After admiring for some time the beauty of the jewels, Aladdin spoke once more. ‘Mother,’ he said, ‘you can no longer get out of going and presenting yourself to the sultan on the pretext of not having a present to offer him; here is one, it seems to me, which will ensure you are received with the most favourable of welcomes.’
For all the beauty and splendour of the present, Aladdin’s mother did not think it was worth as much as Aladdin believed it to be. Nonetheless she thought it would be acceptable and she knew she had nothing to say to the contrary; but she kept thinking of the request Aladdin wanted her to make to the sultan with the help of this gift and this worried her greatly. ‘My son,’ she said to him, ‘I don’t find it difficult to imagine that the present will have its effect and that the sultan will look upon me favourably; but when it comes to my putting the request to him that you want me to make, I feel I won’t have the strength and I will remain silent. My journey will have been wasted as I will have lost what you claim is a gift of extraordinary value. I will come home completely embarrassed at having to tell you that you are disappointed in your hopes. I have already explained this to you and you should realize that this is what will happen. However,’ she added, ‘even if it hurts me, I will give in to your wish and I will force myself to have the strength and courage to dare to make the request you want me to make. The sultan will most probably either laugh at me and send me away as a madwoman or he will quite rightly fly into a great rage of which you and I will inevitably be the victims.’
Aladdin’s mother gave her son several other reasons in an attempt to make him change his mind; but the charms of Princess Badr had made too deep an impression on his heart for anyone to be able to dissuade him from carrying out his plan. Aladdin continued to insist his mother go through with it; and so, as much out of her love for him as out of fear that he might resort to some extreme measure, she overcame her aversion and bowed to her son’s will.
As it was too late and the time to go to the palace for an audience with the sultan that day had passed, the matter was put off until the following day. For the rest of the day, mother and son spoke of nothing else, Aladdin taking great care to tell his mother everything he could think of to strengthen her in the decision which she had finally made, to go and present herself to the sultan. Yet, despite all his arguments, his mother could not be persuaded that she would ever succeed in the matter, and, indeed, one must admit she had good reason to doubt. ‘My son,’ she said to Aladdin, ‘assuming the sultan receives me as favourably as I wish for your sake, and assuming he listens calmly to the proposal you want me to put to him, what if, after this friendly reception, he should then ask about your possessions, your riches and your estates? For that’s what he will ask about before anything else, rather than about you yourself. If he asks me about that, what do you want me to reply?’
‘Mother,’ said Aladdin, ‘let’s not worry in advance about something which may never happen. Let’s first see what sort of reception the sultan gives you and what reply he gives you. If he happens to want to know all you have just suggested, I will think of an answer to give him, for I am confident that the lamp, which has been the means of our subsistence for the past few years, will not fail me in time of need.’
Aladdin’s mother could think of nothing to say to this. She agreed that the lamp might well be capable of greater miracles than simply providing them with enough to live on. This thought satisfied her and at the same time removed all the difficulties which could have stopped her carrying out the mission she had promised her son. Aladdin, who guessed what she was thinking, said to her: ‘Mother, above all remember to keep the secret; on it depends all the success you and I expect from this affair.’ They then left each other to have some rest; but Aladdin’s mind was so filled with his violent passion and his grand plans for an immense fortune that he was unable to pass the night as peacefully as he would have wished. Before daybreak, he rose and immediately went to wake his mother. He urged her to get dressed as quickly as possible in order to go to the palace gate and to pass through it as soon as it was opened, when the grand vizier, the other viziers and all the court officials entered the council chamber where the sultan always presided in person.
Aladdin’s mother did everything her son wanted. She took the porcelain dish containing the jewels, wrapped it in two layers of cloth, one finer and cleaner than the other, which she tied by all four corners in order to carry it more easily. She then set out, to Aladdin’s great satisfaction, and took the street which led to the sultan’s palace. When she arrived at the gate, the grand vizier, accompanied by the other viziers and the highestranking court officials, had already entered. There was an enormous crowd of all those who had business at the council. The gate opened and she walked with them right up into the council chamber, which was a very handsome room, wide and spacious, with a grand and magnificent entrance. She stopped and placed herself in such a way as to be opposite the sultan, with the grand vizier and the nobles who had a seat at the council to the right and left of him. One after the other, people were called according to the order of the requests that had been presented, and their affairs were produced, pleaded and judged until the time the session usually adjourned, when the sultan rose, dismissed the council and withdrew to his apartments where he was followed by the grand vizier. The other viziers and the court officials withdrew, as did all who were there on some particular business, some happy to have won their case, others less satisfied as judgement had been made against them, and still others left in the hope of their case being heard at the next session.
Aladdin’s mother, seeing that the sultan had risen and withdrawn and that everyone was leaving, concluded rightly that he would not reappear that day and so she decided to return home. When Aladdin saw her coming in with the present destined for the sultan, he did not know at first what to think. Afraid that she had some bad news for him, he did not have the strength to ask her about her trip. The good woman, who had never before set foot in the sultan’s palace and who had not the slightest acquaintance with what normally happened there, helped him out of his difficulty by saying to him with great naivety: ‘My son, I saw the sultan and I am quite sure he, too, saw me. I was right in front of him and nobody could prevent him seeing me, but he was so occupied with all those talking to the right and left of him, that I was filled with pity to see the trouble he took to listen patiently to them. That went on for such a long time that I think he finally became weary; for he arose all of a sudden and withdrew quite brusquely, without wishing to listen to the many other people who were lined up to speak to him. I was, in fact, very pleased because I was beginning to lose patience and was very tired from standing up for so long. However, all is not lost and I intend to return there tomorrow; perhaps the sultan will be less busy.’
However great his passion, Aladdin had to be content with this excuse and remain patient. But he at least had the satisfaction of seeing that his mother had taken the most difficult step, which was to stand before the sultan; he hoped that she would follow the example of those whom she saw speaking to him, and not hesitate to carry out the task with which she was charged when she found an opportunity to speak to him.
The next day, arriving early, as she had done the previous day, Aladdin’s mother again went to the sultan’s palace with the present of gems; but her journey once again proved futile. She found the door of the council chamber closed, council sessions being held only every other day, and realized that she would have to return the following day. This news she reported back to Aladdin, who had to remain patient. She returned six more times to the council chamber, on the appropriate days, always placing herself in front of the sultan, but with the same lack of success as on the first occasion. She would perhaps have returned a hundred more times, all to no avail, had not the sultan, who had seen her standing in front of him at each session, finally paid attention to her. Her lack of success is hardly surprising in that only those who had petitions to present approached the sultan, one by one, to plead their cause, whereas Aladdin’s mother was not among those lined up before him.
At last, one day, after the council had risen and he had returned to his apartments, the sultan said to his vizier: ‘For some time now I have noticed a certain woman who comes regularly every day that I hold my council session. She carries something wrapped up in a cloth and remains standing from the beginning of the audience to the end, always deliberately placed in front of me. Do you know what she wants?’
The grand vizier, who knew no more about her than the sultan but did not wish to appear to be stuck for an answer, replied: ‘Sire, your majesty knows well how women often raise complaints about matters of no importance: this one, apparently, has come to complain to you about having been sold bad flour, or about some other, equally trivial, wrong.’ But the sultan was not satisfied with this reply and said: ‘On the next council day, if this woman comes again, be sure to have her summoned so that I can hear what she has to say.’ To this the grand vizier replied by kissing the sultan’s hand and raising it above his head to indicate that he was prepared to die if he failed to carry out the sultan’s command.
Aladdin’s mother had by now become so accustomed to going to the council and standing before the sultan that she did not think it any trouble, as long as she made her son understand that she was doing everything she could to comply with his wishes. So she returned to the palace on the day of the next session and took up her customary position at the entrance of the chamber, opposite the sultan.
The grand vizier had not yet begun to bring up any case when the sultan noticed Aladdin’s mother. Feeling compassion for her, having seen her wait so long and so patiently, the sultan said to him: ‘First of all, in case you forget, here is the woman I was telling you about; make her come up and let us begin by hearing her and getting her business out of the way.’ Immediately, the grand vizier pointed the woman out to the chief usher, who was standing ready to receive his orders, and commanded him to fetch her and bring her forward. The chief usher went up to her and made a sign to follow him to the foot of the sultan’s throne, where he left her, before taking his place next to the grand vizier.
Aladdin’s mother, having learned from the example of the many others she had seen approach the sultan, prostrated herself, with her forehead touching the carpet that covered the steps to the throne, and remained thus until the sultan ordered her to rise. When she rose, the sultan asked her: ‘My good woman, for some time now I have seen you come to my council chamber and remain at the entrance from the beginning to the very end of the session – so what brings you here?’
Hearing these words, Aladdin’s mother prostrated herself a second time; standing up again, she said: ‘King of all kings, before I reveal to your majesty the extraordinary and almost unbelievable business which brings me before your exalted throne, I beg you to pardon me for the audacity, not to say the impudence, of the request I am going to make to you – a request so unusual that I tremble and am ashamed to put it to my sultan.’
The sultan, to allow her to explain herself in complete freedom, ordered everyone to go out of the council chamber, except the grand vizier. He then told her she could speak and explain herself without fear. But Aladdin’s mother, not content with the sultan’s kindness in sparing her the distress she would have endured in speaking in front of so many people, wished to protect herself from what she feared would be his indignation at the unexpected proposal which she was going to put to him, and continued: ‘Sire, I dare to entreat you that if you find the request I am going to put to your majesty in any way offensive or insulting, you will first assure me of your forgiveness and grant me your pardon.’ ‘Whatever it is,’ replied the sultan, ‘I now forgive you and assure you that no harm will come to you. So speak out.’
Having taken all these precautions because of her fear of arousing the sultan’s anger at receiving a proposal of so delicate a nature, Aladdin’s mother then went on to relate faithfully how Aladdin had first seen Princess Badr, the violent passion which the sight of her had inspired in him, what he had said to her; and how she had done everything she could to talk him out of a passion so harmful not only to his majesty but also to the princess, his daughter, herself. ‘But my son,’ she continued, ‘far from profiting from my advice and admitting his audacity, has obstinately persisted in his purpose. He even threatened that he would be driven to do something desperate if I refused to come and ask your majesty for the hand of the princess in marriage. And it was only with extreme reluctance that I finally found myself forced to do him this favour, for which I beseech your majesty once more to pardon not only me but also my son, Aladdin, for having deigned to aspire to so elevated a union.’
The sultan listened to this speech very gently and kindly, showing no sign of anger or indignation, nor making fun of her request. But before giving her an answer, he asked her what it was she had brought wrapped in a cloth, whereupon she immediately took the porcelain dish, which she had set down at the foot of the throne before prostrating herself, unwrapped it and presented it to him.
One can hardly describe the sultan’s surprise and astonishment when he saw such a quantity of precious gems, so perfect, so brilliant and of a size the like of which he had never seen before, crammed into this dish. For a while he remained quite motionless, lost in admiration. When he had recovered, he received the present from the hands of Aladdin’s mother, exclaiming ecstatically: ‘Ah! How beautiful! What a splendid present!’ When he had admired and handled virtually all the jewels, one by one, examining each gem to assess its distinctive quality, he turned towards his grand vizier and, showing him the dish, said to him: ‘Look, don’t you agree you won’t find anything more splendid or more perfect in the whole world?’ The grand vizier was dazzled. ‘So, what do you think of such a present?’ the sultan asked him. ‘Isn’t it worthy of the princess, my daughter, and can’t I then give her, at a price like that, to the man who asks me for her hand in marriage?’
These words roused the grand vizier into a state of strange agitation. Some time ago, the sultan had given him to understand that it was his intention to bestow the princess in marriage to one of his sons, and so he feared, and with some justification, that the sultan, dazzled by such a sumptuous and extraordinary gift, would now change his mind. He went up to the sultan and whispered into his ear: ‘Sire, one can’t disagree that the present is worthy of the princess; but I beg your majesty to grant me three months before you come to a decision. Before that time, I hope that my son, on whom you have been so kind as to indicate you look favourably, will be able to present her with a much more valuable gift than that offered by Aladdin, who is a stranger to your majesty.’
The sultan, although he was quite sure that his grand vizier could not possibly come up with enough for his son to produce a gift of similar value to offer the princess, nonetheless listened to him and granted him this favour. Turning, then, to Aladdin’s mother, he said: ‘Go home, good woman, and tell your son that I agree to the proposal you have made on his behalf; but I can’t marry the princess, my daughter, to him before I have furnishings provided for her, and these won’t be ready for three months. At the end of that time, come back.’
Aladdin’s mother returned home, her joy being all the greater because she had first thought that, in view of her lowly state, access to the sultan would be impossible, whereas she had in fact obtained a very favourable reply instead of the rebuffs and resulting confusion she had expected. When Aladdin saw his mother come in, two things made him think that she was bringing good news: one was that she was returning earlier than usual, and the other was that her face was all lit up and she was smiling. ‘So, Mother,’ he said to her, ‘is there any cause for hope, or must I die of despair?’ Having removed her veil and sat down beside him on the sofa, she replied: ‘My son, I’m not going to keep you in a state of uncertainty and so will begin at once by telling you that far from thinking of dying you have every reason to be happy.’ She went on to tell him how she had received an audience, before everyone else, and that was the reason she had returned so early. She also told him what precautions she had taken not to offend the sultan in putting the proposal of marriage to Princess Badr, and of the very favourable response she had received from the sultan’s own mouth. She added that, as far as she could judge from indications given by the sultan, it was above all the powerful effect of the present which had determined that favourable reply. ‘I least expected this,’ she said, ‘because the grand vizier had whispered in his ear before he gave his reply and I was afraid he would deflect any goodwill the sultan might have towards you.’
When he heard this, Aladdin thought himself the happiest of men. He thanked his mother for all the trouble she had gone to in pursuit of this affair, whose happy outcome was so important for his peace of mind. And although three months seemed an extremely long time such was his impatience to enjoy the object of his passion, he nonetheless prepared himself to wait patiently, trusting in the sultan’s word, which he considered irrevocable.
One evening, when two months or so had passed, with him counting not only the hours, days and the weeks, but even every moment as he waited for the period to come to an end, his mother, wanting to light the lamp, noticed that there was no more oil in the house. So she went out to buy some. As she approached the centre of the city, everywhere she saw signs of festivity: the shops, instead of being shut, were all open and were being decorated with greenery, and illuminations were being prepared – in their enthusiasm, every shop owner was vying with each other in their efforts to display the most pomp and magnificence. Everywhere were demonstrations of happiness and rejoicing. The streets themselves were blocked by officials in ceremonial dress, mounted on richly harnessed horses, and surrounded by a milling throng of attendants on foot. Aladdin’s mother asked the merchant from whom she was buying her oil what this all meant. ‘My good woman, where are you from?’ he replied. ‘Don’t you know that the son of the grand vizier is to marry Princess Badr, daughter of the sultan, this evening? She is about to come out of the baths and the officials you see here are gathering to accompany her procession to the palace, where the ceremony is to take place.’
Aladdin’s mother did not wish to hear any more. She returned home in such haste that she arrived almost breathless. She found Aladdin, who little expected the grievous news she was bringing, and exclaimed: ‘My son, you have lost everything! You were counting on the sultan’s fine promises – nothing will come of them now.’ Alarmed at these words, Aladdin said to her: ‘But, mother, in what way will the sultan not keep his promise to me? And how do you know?’ ‘This evening,’ she replied, ‘the son of the grand vizier is to marry Princess Badr, in the palace.’ She went on to explain how she had learned this, telling him all the circumstances so as to leave him in no doubt.
At this news, Aladdin remained motionless, as though he had been struck by a bolt of lightning. Anyone else would have been quite overcome, but a deep jealousy prevented him from staying like this for long. He instantly remembered the lamp which had until then been so useful to him: without breaking out in a pointless outburst against the sultan, the grand vizier or his son, he merely said to his mother: ‘Maybe the son of the grand vizier will not be as happy tonight as he thinks he will be. While I go to my room for a moment, prepare us some supper.’
Aladdin’s mother guessed her son was going to make use of the lamp to prevent, if possible, the consummation of the marriage, and she was not deceived. Indeed, when Aladdin entered his room, he took the magic lamp – which he had removed from his mother’s sight and taken there after the appearance of the jinni had given her such a fright – and rubbed it in the same spot as before. Immediately, the jinni appeared before him and asked: ‘What is your wish? Here am I, ready to obey you, your slave and the slave of all those who hold the lamp, I and the other slaves of the lamp.’
‘Listen,’ Aladdin said to him, ‘up until now, you have brought me food when I was in need of it, but now I have business of the utmost importance. I have asked the sultan for the hand of the princess, his daughter; he promised her to me but asked for a delay of three months. However, instead of keeping his promise, he is marrying her tonight to the son of the grand vizier, before the time is up: I have just learned of this and it’s a fact. What I demand of you is that, as soon as the bride and bridegroom are in bed, you carry them off and bring them both here, in their bed.’ ‘Master,’ replied the jinni, ‘I will obey you. Do you have any other command?’ ‘Nothing more at present,’ said Aladdin, and the jinni immediately disappeared.
Aladdin returned to his mother and had supper with her, calmly and peacefully as usual. After supper, he talked to her for a while about the marriage of the princess as if it were something which no longer worried him. Then he returned to his room, leaving his mother to go to bed. He himself did not go to sleep, however, but waited for the jinni’s return and for the order he had given him to be carried out.
All this while, everything had been prepared with much splendour in the sultan’s palace to celebrate the marriage of the princess, and the evening passed in ceremonies and entertainments which went on well into the night. When it was all over, the son of the grand vizier, after a signal given him by the princess’s chief eunuch, slipped out and was then brought in by him to the princess’s apartments, right to the room where the marriage bed had been prepared. He went to bed first. A little while after, the sultana, accompanied by her ladies and by those of the princess, her daughter, led in the bride, who, as is the custom of brides, put up a great resistance. The sultana helped to undress her and put her into bed as though by force; and, after having embraced her and saying goodnight, she withdrew, together with all the women, the last to leave shutting the door behind her.
No sooner had the door been shut than the jinni – as faithful servant of the lamp and punctual in carrying out the commands of those who had it in their hands – without giving the bridegroom time to so much as caress his wife, to the great astonishment of them both, lifted up the bed, complete with bride and groom, and transported them in an instant to Aladdin’s room, where he set it down.
Aladdin, who had been waiting impatiently for this moment, did not allow the son of the grand vizier to remain lying with the princess but said to the jinni: ‘Take this bridegroom, lock him up in the privy and come back tomorrow morning, a little after daybreak.’ The jinni immediately carried off the son of the grand vizier from the bed, in his nightshirt, and transported him to the place Aladdin had told him to take him, where he left the bridegroom, after breathing over him a breath which he felt from head to toe and which prevented him from stirring from where he was.
However great the passion Aladdin felt for Princess Badr, once he found himself alone with her, he did not address her at length, but declared passionately: ‘Don’t be afraid, adorable princess, you are quite safe here, and however violent the love I feel for your beauty and your charms, it will never go beyond the bounds of the profound respect I have for you. If I have been forced to adopt such extreme measures, this was not to offend you but to prevent an unjust rival from possessing you, contrary to the word in my favour given me by your father, the sultan.’
The princess, who knew nothing of the circumstances surrounding all this, paid little attention to what Aladdin had to say and was in no state to reply to him. Her terror and astonishment at so surprising and unexpected an adventure had put her into such a state that Aladdin could not get a word out of her. He did not leave it at that but decided to undress and then lie down in the place of the son of the grand vizier, his back turned to the princess, after having taken the precaution of putting a sword between them, to show that he deserved to be punished if he made an attempt on her honour.
Happy at having thus deprived his rival of the pleasure which he had flattered himself he would enjoy that night, Aladdin slept quite peacefully. This was not true of the princess, however: never in all her life had she spent so trying and disagreeable a night; and as for the son of the vizier, if one considers the place and the state in which the jinni had left him, one can guess that her new husband spent it in a much more distressing manner.
The next morning, Aladdin did not need to rub the lamp to summon the jinni, who came by himself at the appointed hour, just when Aladdin had finished dressing. ‘Here am I,’ he said to Aladdin. ‘What is your command?’ ‘Go and bring back the son of the grand vizier from the place where you put him,’ said Aladdin. ‘Place him in this bed again and carry it back to the sultan’s palace, from where you took it.’ The jinni went to fetch the son of the grand vizier, and when he reappeared, Aladdin took up his sword from the bed. The jinni placed the bridegroom next to the princess and, in an instant, he returned the marriage bed to the same room in the sultan’s palace from where he had taken it.
It should be pointed out that, all the while, the jinni could not be seen by either the princess or the son of the grand vizier – his hideous shape would have been enough to make them die of fright. Nor did they hear any of the conversation between Aladdin and him. All they noticed was how their bed shook and how they were transported from one place to another; which was quite enough, as one can easily imagine, to give them a considerable fright.
The jinni had just restored the nuptial bed to its place when the sultan, curious to discover how his daughter, the princess, had spent the first night of her marriage, entered her room to wish her good morning. No sooner did he hear the door open than the son of the grand vizier, chilled to the bone from the cold he had endured all night long and not yet having had time to warm up again, got up and went to the closet where he had undressed the previous evening.
The sultan approached the princess’s bed, kissed her between the eyes, as was the custom, and asked her, as he greeted her with a smile, what sort of night she had had; but raising his head again and looking at her more closely, he was extremely surprised to see that she was in a state of great dejection and neither by a blush spreading over her face nor by any other sign could she satisfy his curiosity. She only gave him a most sorrowful look, which indicated either great sadness or great discontent. He said a few more words to her but, seeing that he could get nothing more from her, he decided she was keeping silent out of modesty and so retired. Nevertheless, still suspicious that there was something unusual about her silence, he went straight away to the apartments of the sultana and told her in what a state he had found the princess and how she had received him. ‘Sire,’ the sultana said to him, ‘this should not surprise your majesty; there’s no bride who does not display the same reserve the morning after her wedding night. It won’t be the same in two or three days: she will then receive her father, the sultan, as she ought. I am going to see her myself,’ she added, ‘and I will be very surprised if she receives me in the same way.’
When the sultana had dressed, she went to the princess’s room. Badr had not yet risen, and when the sultana approached her bed, greeting and embracing her, great was her surprise not only to receive no reply but also to see the princess in a state of deep dejection, which made her conclude that something she could not understand had happened to her daughter. ‘My daughter,’ she said to her, ‘how is it that you don’t respond to my caresses? How can you behave like this to your mother? Don’t you think I don’t know what can happen in circumstances like yours? I would really like to think that that’s not what’s in your mind and something else must have happened. Tell me quite frankly; don’t leave me weighed down by anxiety for a moment longer.’
At last, the princess broke her silence and gave a deep sigh. ‘Ah! My dear and esteemed mother,’ she exclaimed, ‘forgive me if I have failed to show you the respect I owe you. My mind is so preoccupied with the extraordinary things that happened to me last night that I have not yet recovered from my astonishment and terror and I hardly know myself.’ She then proceeded to tell her, in the most colourful detail, how shortly after she and her husband had gone to bed, the bed had been lifted up and transported in a moment to a dark and squalid room where she found herself all alone and separated from her husband, without knowing what had happened to him; how she had seen a young man who had addressed a few words to her which her terror had prevented her understanding, who had lain beside her in her husband’s place, after placing a sword between them; and how her husband had been restored to her and the bed returned to its place, all in a very short space of time. ‘All this,’ she added, ‘had just taken place when the sultan, my father, came into the room; I was so overcome by grief that I had not the strength to reply even with a single word, and so I have no doubt he was angry at the manner in which I received the honour he did me by coming to see me. But I hope he will forgive me when he knows of my sad adventure and sees the pitiful state I’m still in.’
The sultana listened calmly to everything the princess had to say, but she did not believe it. ‘My daughter,’ she said, ‘you were quite right not to talk about this to the sultan, your father. Take care not to talk about it to anyone – they will think you mad if they hear you talk like this.’ ‘Mother,’ she rejoined, ‘I can assure you that I am in my right mind. Ask my husband and he will tell you the same thing.’ ‘I will ask him,’ replied the sultana, ‘but even if his account is the same as yours, I won’t be any more convinced than I am now. Now get up and clear your mind of such fantasies; a fine thing it would be if you were to let such a dream upset the celebrations arranged for your wedding, which are set to last several days, not only in this palace but throughout the kingdom! Can’t you already hear the fanfares and the sounds of trumpets, drums and tambourines? All this should fill you with pleasure and joy and make you forget the fantastic stories you’ve been telling me.’ The sultana then summoned the princess’s maids and, after she had made her get up and seen her set about getting dressed, she went to the sultan’s apartments and told him that some fancy had, indeed, entered the head of his daughter, but that it was nothing. She sent for the son of the vizier to discover from him a little about what the princess had told her; but he, knowing himself to be greatly honoured by his alliance with the sultan, decided it would be best to conceal the adventure. ‘Tell me, son-in-law,’ the sultana said to him, ‘are you being as stubborn as your wife?’ ‘My lady,’ he replied, ‘may I enquire why you ask me this?’ ‘That will do,’ retorted the sultana. ‘I don’t need to hear anything more. You are wiser than she is.’
The rejoicings continued in the palace all day, and the sultana, who never left the princess, did all she could to cheer her up and make her take part in the entertainments and amusements prepared for her. But the princess was so struck down by the visions of what had happened to her the previous night that it was easy to see she was totally preoccupied by them. The son of the vizier was just as shattered by the bad night he had spent but, fired by ambition, he concealed it and, seeing him, no one would have thought he was anything else but the happiest of bridegrooms.
Aladdin, knowing all about what had happened in the palace and never doubting that the newly-weds would sleep together, despite the misadventure of the previous night, had no desire to leave them in peace. So, after nightfall, he had recourse once again to the lamp. Immediately, the jinni appeared and greeted him in the same way as on the other occasions, offering him his services. ‘The son of the grand vizier and Princess Badr are going to sleep together again tonight,’ explained Aladdin. ‘Go, and as soon as they are in bed, bring them here, as you did yesterday.’
The jinni served Aladdin as faithfully and as punctually as on the previous day; the son of the grand vizier spent as disagreeable a night as the one he had already endured and the princess was as mortified as before to have Aladdin as her bedfellow, with the sword placed between them. The next day, the jinni, following Aladdin’s orders, returned and restored the husband to his wife’s side; he then lifted up the bed with the newly-weds and transported it back to the room in the palace from where he had taken it.
Early the next morning, the sultan, anxious to discover how the princess had spent the second night, and wondering if she would receive him in the same way as on the previous day, went to her room to find out. But no sooner did the son of the grand vizier, more ashamed and mortified by his bad luck on the second night, hear the sultan come in than he hastily arose and hurled himself into the closet.
The sultan approached the princess’s bed and greeted her, and after embracing her in the same way as he had the day before, asked her: ‘Well, my dear, are you in as bad a mood this morning as you were yesterday? Tell me what sort of night you had.’ But the princess again remained silent, and the sultan saw that her mind was even more disturbed and she was more dejected than the first time. He had no doubt now that something extraordinary had happened to her. So, irritated by the mystery she was making of it and clutching his sword, he angrily said to her: ‘My daughter, either you tell me what you are hiding from me or I will cut off your head this very instant.’
At last, the princess, more frightened by the tone of her aggrieved father and his threat than by the sight of the unsheathed sword, broke her silence, and, with tears in her eyes, burst out: ‘My dear father and sultan, I beg pardon of your majesty if I have offended you and I hope that in your goodness and mercy anger will give way to compassion when I give you a faithful account of the sad and pitiful state in which I spent all last night and the night before.’ After this preamble, which somewhat calmed and softened the sultan, she faithfully recounted to him all that had happened to her during those two unfortunate nights. Her account was so moving that, in the love and tenderness he felt for her, he was filled with deep sorrow. When she had finished her account, she said to him: ‘If your majesty has the slightest doubt about the account I have just given, you can ask the husband you have given me. I am convinced your majesty will be persuaded of the truth when he bears the same witness to it as I have done.’
The sultan now truly felt the extreme distress that such an astonishing adventure must have caused the princess and said to her: ‘My daughter, you were very wrong not to have told me yesterday about such a strange affair, which concerns me as much as yourself. I did not marry you with the intention of making you miserable but rather with a view to making you happy and content, and to let you enjoy the happiness you deserve and can expect with a husband who seemed suited to you. Forget now all the worrying images you have just told me about. I will see to it that you endure no more nights as disagreeable and as unbearable as those you have just spent.’
As soon as the sultan had returned to his own apartments, he called for his grand vizier and asked him: ‘Vizier, have you seen your son and has he not said anything to you?’ When the vizier replied that he had not seen him, the sultan related to him everything Princess Badr had just told him, adding: ‘I do not doubt my daughter was telling the truth, but I would be very glad to have it confirmed by what your son says. Go and ask him about it.’
The grand vizier made haste to join his son and to tell him what the sultan had said. He charged him to not conceal the truth but to tell him whether all this was true, to which his son replied: ‘Father, I will conceal nothing from you. All that the princess told the sultan is true, but she couldn’t tell him about the ill treatment I myself received, which is this: since my wedding I have spent the two most cruel nights imaginable and I do not have the words to describe to you exactly and in every detail the ills I have suffered. I won’t tell you what I felt when I found myself lifted up four times in my bed and transported from one place to another, unable to see who was lifting the bed or to imagine how that could have been done. You can judge for yourself the wretched state I found myself in when I tell you that I spent two nights standing, naked but for my nightshirt, in a kind of narrow privy, not free to move from where I stood nor able to make any movement, although I could see no obstacle to prevent me from moving. I don’t need to go into further detail about all my sufferings. I will not conceal from you that all this has not stopped me from feeling towards the princess, my wife, all the love, respect and gratitude that she deserves; but I confess in all sincerity that despite all the honour and glory that comes to me from having married the daughter of the sultan, I would rather die than live any longer in such an elevated alliance if I have to endure any further such disagreeable treatment as I have done. I am sure the princess feels the same as I do and will readily agree that our separation is as necessary for her peace of mind as it is for mine. And so, father, I beseech you, by the same love which led you to procure for me such a great honour, to make the sultan agree to our marriage being declared null and void.’
However great the grand vizier’s ambition was for his son to become the son-in-law of the sultan, seeing how firmly resolved he was to separate from the princess, he did not think it right to suggest he be patient and wait a few more days to see if this problem might not be solved. He left his son and went to give his reply to the sultan, to whom he admitted frankly that it was only too true after what he had just learned from his son. Without waiting even for the sultan to speak to him about ending the marriage, which he could see he was all too much in favour of doing, he begged him to allow his son to leave the palace and to return home to him, using as a pretext that it was not right for the princess to be exposed a moment longer to such terrible persecution for the sake of his son.
The grand vizier had no difficulty in obtaining what he asked for. Immediately, the sultan, who had already made up his mind, gave orders to stop the festivities in his palace, the city and throughout the length and breadth of his kingdom, countering those originally given. In a very short while, all signs of joy and public rejoicing in the city and in the kingdom had ceased.
This sudden and unexpected change gave rise to many different interpretations: people asked each other what had caused this upset, but all that they could say was that the grand vizier had been seen leaving the palace and going home, accompanied by his son, both of them looking very dejected. Only Aladdin knew the secret and inwardly rejoiced at the good fortune which the lamp had procured him. Once he had learned for certain that his rival had abandoned the palace and that the marriage between him and the princess was over, he needed no longer to rub the lamp nor to summon the jinni to stop it being consummated. What is strange is that neither the sultan nor the grand vizier, who had forgotten Aladdin and his request, had the slightest idea that he had any part in the enchantment which had just caused the break-up of the princess’s marriage.
Meanwhile, Aladdin let the three months go by that the sultan had stipulated before the marriage between him and Princess Badr could take place. He counted the days very carefully, and when they were up, the very next morning he hastened to send his mother to the palace to remind the sultan of his word.
Aladdin’s mother went to the palace as her son had asked her and stood at the entrance to the council chamber, in the same spot as before. As soon as the sultan caught sight of her, he recognized her and immediately remembered the request she had made him and the date to which he had put off fulfilling it. The vizier was at that moment reporting to him on some matter, but the sultan interrupted him, saying: ‘Vizier, I see the good woman who gave us such a fine gift a few months ago; bring her up – you can resume your report when I have heard what she has to say.’ The grand vizier turned towards the entrance of the council chamber, saw Aladdin’s mother and immediately summoned the chief usher, to whom he pointed her out, ordering him to bring her forward.
Aladdin’s mother advanced right to the foot of the throne, where she prostrated herself as was customary. When she rose up again, the sultan asked her what her request was, to which she replied: ‘Sire, I come before your majesty once more to inform you, in the name of my son Aladdin, that the three months’ postponement of the request I had the honour to put to your majesty has come to an end and I entreat you to be so good as to remember your word.’
When he had first seen her, so meanly dressed, standing before him in all her poverty and lowliness, the sultan had thought that by making a delay of three months to reply to her request he would hear no more talk of a marriage which he regarded as not at all suitable for his daughter, the princess. He was, however, embarrassed at being called upon to keep his word to her but he did not think it advisable to give her an immediate reply, so he consulted his grand vizier, expressing to him his repugnance at the idea of marrying the princess to a stranger whose fortune he presumed was less than the most modest.
The grand vizier lost no time in telling the sultan what he thought about this. ‘Sire,’ he said, ‘it seems to me there is a sure way of avoiding such an unequal marriage which would not give Aladdin, even were he better known to your majesty, grounds for complaint: this is to put such a high price on the princess that, however great his riches, he could not meet this. This would be a way of making him abandon such a bold, not to say foolhardy, pursuit, about which no doubt he did not think carefully before embarking on it.’
The sultan approved of the advice of the grand vizier and, turning towards Aladdin’s mother, he said to her, after a moment’s reflection: ‘My good woman, sultans should keep their word; I am ready to keep mine and to make your son happy by marrying my daughter, the princess, to him. However, as I can’t marry her before I know what advantage there is in it for her, tell your son that I will carry out my word as soon as he sends me forty large bowls of solid gold, full to the brim with the same things you have already presented to me on his behalf, and carried by a similar number of black slaves who, in their turn, are to be led by forty more white slaves – young, well built, handsome and all magnificently clothed. These are the conditions on which I am prepared to give him my daughter. Go, good woman, and I will wait for you to bring me his reply.’
Aladdin’s mother prostrated herself in front of the sultan’s throne and withdrew. As she went on her way, she laughed at the thought of her son’s foolish ambition. ‘Really,’ she said to herself, ‘where is he going to find so many golden bowls and such a large quantity of those coloured bits of glass to fill them? Will he go back to that underground cave with the entry blocked and pick them off the trees there? And all those slaves turned out as the sultan demanded, where is he going to get them from? He hasn’t the remotest chance and I don’t think he’s going to be happy with the outcome of my mission.’ When she got home, her mind was filled with all these thoughts, which made her believe Aladdin had nothing more to hope for, so she said to him: ‘My son, I advise you to give up any thought of marrying the princess. The sultan did, indeed, receive me very kindly and I believe he was full of goodwill towards you; but the grand vizier, I am almost sure, made him change his mind, and I think you will think the same after you have heard what I have to say. After I reminded his majesty that the three months had expired and had begged him, on your behalf, to remember his promise, I noticed that he only gave the reply I am about to relate after a whispered conversation with his grand vizier.’ Aladdin’s mother then proceeded to give her son a faithful account of all that the sultan had said to her and the conditions on which he said he would consent to the marriage between him and the princess, his daughter. ‘My son,’ she said in conclusion, ‘he is waiting for your reply, but, between ourselves,’ she added with a smile, ‘I believe he will have to wait for a long time.’
‘Not so long as you would like to think, mother,’ said Aladdin, ‘and the sultan is mistaken if he thinks that by such exorbitant demands he is going to prevent me from desiring his daughter. I was expecting other insurmountable difficulties or that he would set a far higher price on my incomparable princess. But for the moment, I am quite content and what he is demanding is a mere trifle in comparison with what I would be in a position to offer him to obtain possession of her. You go and buy some food for dinner while I go and think about satisfying his demands – just leave it to me.’
As soon as Aladdin’s mother had gone out to do the shopping, Aladdin took the lamp and rubbed it; immediately the jinni rose up before him and, in the same terms as before, asked Aladdin what was his command, saying that he was ready to serve him. Aladdin said to him: ‘The sultan is giving me the hand of the princess his daughter in marriage, but first he demands of me forty large, heavy bowls of solid gold, filled to the brim with the fruits from the garden from where I took the lamp whose slave you are. He is also demanding from me that these forty bowls be carried by a similar number of black slaves, preceded by forty white slaves – young, well built, handsome and magnificently clothed. Go and bring me this present as fast as possible so that I can send it to the sultan before he gets up from his session at the council.’ The jinni told him his command would be carried out without delay, and disappeared.
Shortly afterwards, the jinni reappeared, accompanied by the forty black slaves, each one bearing on his head a heavy bowl of solid gold, filled with pearls, diamonds, rubies and emeralds, all chosen for their beauty and their size so as to be better than those which had already been given to the sultan. Each bowl was covered with a silver cloth embroidered with flowers of gold. All these slaves, both black and white, together with all the golden dishes, occupied almost the whole of the very modest house, together with its small courtyard in front and the little garden at the back. The jinni asked Aladdin if he was satisfied and whether he had any other command to put to him, and when Aladdin said he had nothing more to ask him, he immediately disappeared.
When Aladdin’s mother returned from the market and entered the house, she was very astonished to see so many people and so many riches. She put down the provisions she had bought and was about to remove the veil covering her face when she was prevented by Aladdin, who said to her: ‘Mother, we have no time to lose; before the sultan finishes his session, it is very important you return to the palace and immediately bring him this present, Princess Badr’s dowry, which he asked me for, so that he can judge, by my diligence and punctuality, the sincerity of my ardent desire to procure the honour of entering into an alliance with him.’
Without waiting for his mother to reply, Aladdin opened the door to the street and made all the slaves file out in succession, a white slave always followed by a black slave, bearing a golden bowl on his head, and so on, to the last one. After his mother had come out, following the last black slave, he closed the door and sat calmly in his room, in the hope that the sultan, after receiving the present he had demanded, would at last consent to receive him as his son-in-law.
The first white slave who came out of Aladdin’s house made all the passers-by who saw him stop, and by the time eighty black and white slaves had finished emerging, the street was crowded with people rushing up from all parts of the city to see this magnificent and extraordinary sight. Each slave was dressed in such rich fabrics and wore such splendid jewels that those who knew anything about such matters would have reckoned each costume must have cost more than a million dinars: the neatness and perfect fit of each dress; the proud and graceful bearing of each slave; their uniform and symmetrical build; the solemn way they processed – all this, together with the glittering jewels of exorbitant size, encrusted and beautifully arranged in their belts of solid gold, and the insignias of jewels set in their headdresses, which were of a quite special type, roused the admiration of this crowd of spectators to such a state that they could not leave off staring at them and following them with their eyes as far as they could. The streets were so crowded with people that no one could move but each had to stay where he happened to be.
As the procession had to pass through several streets to get to the palace, a good number of the city’s inhabitants, of all kinds and classes, were able to witness this marvellous display of pomp. When the first of the eighty slaves arrived at the gate of the first courtyard of the palace, the doorkeepers, who had drawn up in a line as soon as they spotted this wonderful procession approaching, took him for a king, thanks to the richness and splendour of his dress and they went up to him to kiss the hem of his garment. But the slave, as instructed by the jinni, stopped them and solemnly told them: ‘We are but slaves; our master will appear in due course.’
Then this first slave, followed by the rest, advanced to the second courtyard, which was very spacious and was where the sultan’s household stood during the sessions of the council. The palace officials who headed each rank looked very magnificent, but they were eclipsed in splendour by the appearance of the eighty slaves who bore Aladdin’s present. There was nothing more beautiful, more brilliant in the whole of the sultan’s court; however splendid his courtiers who surrounded him, none of them could compare with what now presented itself to his sight.
The sultan, who had been informed of the procession and arrival of the slaves, had given orders to let them in, and so, as soon as they appeared, they found the entrance to the council chamber open. They entered in orderly fashion, one half filing to the right, one half to the left. After they had all entered and had formed a large semicircle around the sultan’s throne, each of the black slaves placed the bowl he was carrying on to the carpet in front of the sultan. All then prostrated themselves, touching the carpet with their foreheads. At the same time, the white slaves did the same. Then they all got up and the black slaves, as they rose, skilfully uncovered the bowls in front of them and stood with their hands crossed on their chests in great reverence.
Aladdin’s mother, who had, meanwhile, advanced to the foot of the throne, prostrated herself before the sultan and addressed him, saying: ‘Sire, my son, Aladdin, knows well that this gift he sends to your majesty is far less than Princess Badr deserves, but he hopes nonetheless that your majesty will be pleased to accept it and consider it acceptable for the princess; he offers it all the more confidently because he has endeavoured to conform to the condition which your majesty was pleased to impose on him.’
The sultan was in no state to pay attention to her compliments: one look at the forty golden bowls, filled to the brim with the most brilliant, dazzling and most precious jewels ever to be seen in the world, and at the eighty slaves who, as much by their handsome appearance as by the richness and amazing magnificence of their dress, looked like so many kings, and he was so overwhelmed that he could not get over his astonishment. Instead of replying to Aladdin’s mother, he addressed the grand vizier, who likewise could not understand where such a great profusion of riches could have come from. ‘Well now, vizier,’ he publicly addressed him, ‘what do you think about a person, whoever he may be, who sends me such a valuable and extraordinary present, someone whom neither of us knows? Don’t you think he is fit to marry my daughter, Princess Badr?’
For all his jealousy and pain at seeing a stranger preferred before his son to become the son-in-law of the sultan, the vizier nonetheless managed to conceal his feelings. It was quite obvious that Aladdin’s present was more than enough for him to be admitted to such a high alliance. So the vizier agreed with the sultan, saying: ‘Sire, far from believing that someone who gives you a present so worthy of your majesty should be unworthy of the honour you wish to do him, I would be so bold as to say that he deserves it all the more, were I not persuaded that there is no treasure in the world precious enough to be put in balance with your majesty’s daughter, the princess.’ At this, all the courtiers present at the session applauded, showing that they were of the same opinion as the grand vizier.
The sultan did not delay; he did not even think to enquire whether Aladdin had the other qualities appropriate for one who aspired to become his son-in-law. The mere sight of such immense riches and the diligence with which Aladdin had fulfilled his demand without making the slightest difficulty over conditions as exorbitant as those he had imposed on him, easily persuaded the sultan that Aladdin lacked nothing to render him as accomplished as the sultan wished. So, to send Aladdin’s mother back with all the satisfaction she could desire, he said to her: ‘Go, my good woman, and tell your son that I am waiting to receive him with open arms and to embrace him, and that the quicker he comes to receive from me the gift I have bestowed on him of the princess, my daughter, the greater the pleasure he will give me.’
Aladdin’s mother left with all the delight a woman of her status is capable of on seeing her son, contrary to all expectations, attain such a high position. The sultan then immediately concluded the day’s audience and, rising from his throne, ordered the eunuchs attached to the princess’s service to come and remove the bowls and carry them off to their mistress’s chamber, where he himself went to examine them with her at his leisure. This order was carried out at once, under supervision of the head eunuch.
The eighty black and white slaves were not forgotten; they were taken inside the palace and, a little later, the sultan, who had been telling the princess about their magnificence, ordered them to be brought to the entrance of her chamber so that she could look at them through the screens and realize that, far from exaggerating anything in his account, he had not told her even half the story.
Meanwhile, Aladdin’s mother arrived home with an expression which told in advance of the good news she was bringing. ‘My son,’ she said to him, ‘you have every reason to be happy: contrary to my expectations – and you will recall what I told you – you have attained the accomplishment of your desires. In order not to keep you in suspense any longer, the sultan, with the approval of his entire court, has declared that you are worthy to possess Princess Badr. He is waiting to embrace you and to bring about your marriage. You must now think about how to prepare for this meeting so that you may come up to the high opinion the sultan has formed of you. After all the miracles I have seen you perform, I am sure nothing will be lacking. I must not forget to tell you also that the sultan is waiting impatiently for you, and so waste no time in going to him.’
Aladdin was delighted at this news and, his mind full of the enchanting creature who had so bewitched him, after saying a few words to his mother, withdrew to his room. Once there, he took the lamp which had hitherto been so useful to him in fulfilling all his needs and wishes, and no sooner had he rubbed it than the jinni appeared before him and immediately proceeded to offer him his services as before. ‘O jinni,’ said Aladdin, ‘I have summoned you to help me take a bath and when I have finished, I want you to have ready for me the most sumptuous and magnificent costume ever worn by a king.’ No sooner had he finished speaking than the jinni, making them both invisible, lifted him up and transported him to a bath made of the finest marble of every shade of the most beautiful colours. Without seeing who was waiting on him, he was undressed in a spacious and very well-arranged room. From this room he was made to go into the bath, which was moderately hot, and there he was rubbed and washed with several kinds of perfumed waters. After he had been taken into various rooms of different degrees of heat, he came out again transformed, his complexion fresh, all pink and white, and feeling lighter and more refreshed. He returned to the first room, but the clothing he had left there had gone; in its place the jinni had carefully set out the costume he had asked for. When he saw the magnificence of the garments which had been substituted for his own, Aladdin was astonished. With the help of the jinni, he got dressed, admiring as he did so each item of clothing as he put it on, for everything was beyond anything he could have imagined.
When he had finished, the jinni took him back to his house, to the same room from where he had transported him. He then asked Aladdin whether he had any other demands. ‘Yes,’ replied Aladdin, ‘I want you to bring me as quickly as possible a horse which is finer and more beautiful than the most highly valued horse in the sultan’s stables; its trappings, its harness, its saddle, its bridle – all must be worth more than a million dinars. I also ask you to bring me at the same time twenty slaves as richly and smartly attired as those who delivered the sultan’s present, who are to walk beside me and behind me in a group, and twenty more like them to precede me in two files. Bring my mother, too, with six slave girls to wait on her, each dressed at least as richly as the princess’s slave girls, and each bearing a complete set of women’s clothes as magnificent and sumptuous as those of a sultana. Finally, I need ten thousand pieces of gold in ten purses. There,’ he ended, ‘that’s what I command you to do. Go, and make haste.’
As soon as Aladdin had finished giving him his orders, the jinni disappeared; shortly afterwards, he reappeared with the horse, the forty slaves – ten of whom were each carrying a purse containing a thousand pieces of gold, and the six slave girls – each one bearing on her head a different costume for Aladdin’s mother, wrapped up in a silver cloth, and all this he presented to Aladdin. Of the ten purses Aladdin took four, which he gave to his mother, telling her she should use them for her needs. The remaining six he left in the hands of the slaves who were carrying them, charging them to keep them and throw out handfuls of gold from them to the people as they passed through the streets on their way to the sultan’s palace. He also ordered these six slaves to walk in front of him with the others, three on the right and three on the left. Finally, he presented the six slave girls to his mother, telling her that they were hers to use as her slaves and that the clothes they brought were for her.
When Aladdin had settled all these matters, he told the jinni as he dismissed him that he would call him when he needed his services and the jinni instantly disappeared. Aladdin’s one thought now was to reply as quickly as possible to the desire the sultan had expressed to see him. So he despatched to the palace one of the forty slaves – I will not say the most handsome, for they were all equally handsome – with the order to address himself to the chief usher and ask him when Aladdin might have the honour of prostrating himself at the feet of the sultan. The slave was not long in carrying out his task, returning with the reply that the sultan was awaiting him with impatience.
Aladdin made haste to set off on horseback and process in the order already described. Although this was the first time he had ever mounted a horse, he appeared to ride with such ease that not even the most experienced horseman would have taken him for a novice. In less than a moment, the streets he passed through filled with an innumerable crowd of people, whose cheers and blessings and cries of admiration rang out, particularly when the six slaves with the purses threw handfuls of gold coins into the air to the left and right. These cheers of approval did not, however, come from the rabble, who were busy picking up the gold, but from a higher rank of people who could not refrain from publicly praising Aladdin for his generosity. Anyone who could remember seeing him playing in the street, the perpetual vagabond, no longer recognized Aladdin, and even those who had seen him not long ago had difficulty making him out, so different were his features. This is because one of the properties of the lamp was that it could gradually procure for those who possessed it the perfections which went with the status they attained by making good use of it. Consequently, people paid more attention to Aladdin himself than to the pomp which accompanied him and which most of them had already seen that same day when the eighty slaves marched in procession, bearing the present. The horse was also much admired for its beauty alone by the experts, who did not let themselves be dazzled by the wealth or brilliance of the diamonds and other jewels with which it was covered. As the news spread that the sultan was giving the hand of his daughter, Princess Badr, in marriage to Aladdin, without regard to his humble birth, no one envied him his good fortune nor his rise in status, as they seemed well deserved.
Aladdin arrived at the palace, where all was set to receive him. When he reached the second gate, he was about to dismount, following the custom observed by the grand vizier, the generals of the armies and the governors of the provinces of the first rank; but the chief usher, who was waiting for him by order of the sultan, prevented him and accompanied him to the council chamber, where he helped him to dismount, despite Aladdin’s strong opposition, but whose protests were in vain for he had no say in the matter. The ushers then formed two lines at the entrance to the chamber and their chief, placing Aladdin on his right, led him through the middle right up to the sultan’s throne.
As soon as the sultan set eyes on Aladdin, he was no less astonished to see him clothed more richly and magnificently than he himself had ever been, than surprised at his fine appearance, his handsome figure and a certain air of grandeur, which were in complete contrast to the lowly state in which his mother had appeared before him. His astonishment and surprise did not, however, prevent him from rising from his throne and descending two or three steps in time to stop Aladdin from prostrating himself at his feet and to embrace him in a warm show of friendship. After such a greeting Aladdin still wanted to throw himself at the sultan’s feet, but the sultan held him back with his hand and forced him to mount the steps and sit between the vizier and himself.
Aladdin now addressed the sultan. ‘Sire,’ he said, ‘I accept the honours your majesty is so gracious as to bestow on me; but permit me to tell you that I have not forgotten I was born your slave, that I know the greatness of your power and I am well aware how much my birth and upbringing are below the splendour and the brilliance of the exalted rank to which I am being raised. If there is any way I can have deserved so favourable a reception, it is maybe due to the boldness that pure chance inspired in me to raise my eyes, my thoughts and my aspirations to the divine princess who is the object of my desires. I beg pardon of your majesty for my rashness but I cannot hide from you that I would die of grief if I were to lose hope of seeing these desires accomplished.’
‘My son,’ replied the sultan, embracing him a second time, ‘you do me wrong to doubt for a single instant the sincerity of my word. From now on, your life is too dear to me for me not to preserve it, by presenting you with the remedy which is at my disposal. I prefer the pleasure of seeing you and hearing you to all my treasures and yours together.’
When he had finished speaking, the sultan gave a signal and immediately the air echoed with the sound of trumpets, oboes and drums. At the same time, the sultan led Aladdin into a magnificent room where a splendid feast was prepared. The sultan ate alone with Aladdin, while the grand vizier and the court dignitaries stood by during the meal, each according to their dignity and rank. The sultan, who took such great pleasure in looking at Aladdin that he never took his eyes off him, led the conversation on several different topics and throughout the meal, in the conversation they held together and on whatever matter the sultan brought up, Aladdin spoke with such knowledge and wisdom that he ended by confirming the sultan in the good opinion he had formed of him from the beginning.
Once the meal was over, the sultan summoned the grand qadi and ordered him immediately to draw up a contract of marriage between Princess Badr, his daughter, and Aladdin. While this was happening, the sultan talked to Aladdin about several different things in the presence of the grand vizier and his courtiers, who all admired Aladdin’s soundness and the great ease with which he spoke and expressed himself and the refined and subtle comments with which he enlivened his conversation.
When the qadi had completed drawing up the contract in all the required forms, the sultan asked Aladdin if he wished to stay in the palace to complete the marriage ceremonies that same day, but Aladdin replied: ‘Sire, however impatient I am fully to enjoy your majesty’s kindnesses, I beg you will be so good as to allow me to put them off until I have had a palace built to receive the princess in, according to her dignity and merit. For this purpose, I ask you to grant me a suitable spot in the palace grounds so that I may be closer at hand to pay you my respects. I will do everything to see that it is accomplished with all possible speed.’ ‘My son,’ said the sultan, ‘take all the land you think you need; there is a large space in front of my palace and I myself had already thought of filling it. But remember, I can’t see you united to my daughter soon enough to complete my happiness.’ After he had said this, the sultan embraced Aladdin, who took his leave of the sultan with the same courtesy as if he had been brought up and always lived at court.
Aladdin remounted his horse and returned home the same way he had come, passing through the same applauding crowds, who wished him happiness and prosperity. As soon as he got back and had dismounted, he went off to his own room, took the lamp and summoned the jinni in the usual way. The jinni immediately appeared and offered him his services. ‘O jinni,’ said Aladdin, ‘I have every reason to congratulate myself on how precisely and promptly you have carried out everything I have asked of you so far, through the power of this lamp, your mistress. But now, for the sake of the lamp, you must, if possible, show even more zeal and more diligence than before. I am now asking you to build me, as quickly as you can, at an appropriate distance opposite the sultan’s residence, a palace worthy of receiving Princess Badr, my wife-to-be. I leave you free to choose the materials – porphyry, jasper, agate, lapis lazuli and the finest marble of every colour – and the rest of the building. But at the very top of this palace, I want you to build a great room, surmounted by a dome and with four equal sides, made up of alternating layers of solid gold and silver. There should be twenty-four windows, six on each side, with the latticed screens of all but one – which I want left unfinished – embellished, skilfully and symmetrically, with diamonds, rubies and emeralds, so that nothing like this will have ever been seen in the world. I also want the palace to have a forecourt, a main court and a garden. But above all, there must be, in a spot you will decide, a treasure house, full of gold and silver coins. And I also want this palace to have kitchens, pantries, storehouses, furniture stores for precious furniture for all seasons and in keeping with the magnificence of the palace, and stables filled with the most beautiful horses complete with their riders and grooms, not to forget hunting equipment. There must also be kitchen staff and officials and female slaves for the service of the princess. You understand what I mean? Go and come back when it’s done.’
It was sunset when Aladdin finished instructing the jinni in the construction of his imagined palace. The next day, at daybreak, Aladdin, who could not sleep peacefully because of his love for the princess, had barely risen when the jinni appeared before him. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘your palace is finished. Come and see if you like it.’ No sooner had Aladdin said he wanted to see it than in an instant the jinni had transported him there. Aladdin found it so beyond all his expectations that he could not admire it enough. The jinni led him through every part; everywhere Aladdin found nothing but riches, splendour and perfection, with the officials and slaves all dressed according to their rank and the services they had to perform. Nor did he forget to show him, as one of the main features, the treasure house, the door to which was opened by the treasurer. There Aladdin saw purses of different sizes, depending on the sums they contained, piled up in a pleasing arrangement which reached up to the vault. As they left, the jinni assured him of the treasurer’s trustworthiness. He then led him to the stables where he showed him the most beautiful horses in the world and the grooms who were grooming them. Finally, he took him through storerooms filled with all the supplies necessary for both the horses’ adornment and their food.
When Aladdin had examined the whole palace from top to bottom, floor by floor, room by room, and in particular the chamber with the twenty-four windows, and had found it so rich and magnificent and well furnished, beyond anything he had promised himself, he said to the jinni: ‘O jinni, nobody could be happier than I am and it would be wrong for me to complain. But there’s one thing which I didn’t tell you because I hadn’t thought about it, which is to spread, from the gate of the sultan’s palace to the door of the room intended for the princess, a carpet of the finest velvet for her to walk on when she comes from the sultan’s palace.’ ‘I will be back in a moment,’ said the jinni. A little after his disappearance, Aladdin was astonished to see that what he wanted had been carried out without knowing how it had been done. The jinni reappeared and carried Aladdin back home, just as the gate of the sultan’s palace was being opened.