Aladdin and the Magic Lamp
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Aladdin falls in love!
And, unfortunately for him, he falls in love with the daughter of the sultan, a girl that seems to be unreachable to him. And that is one of the reasons why he seems to become ill.
The description of the princess is similar to the numerous descriptions of beautiful white girls in the 1001 nights tales. They are almost always compared to the full moon.
Badrou'l-Budour, the name of the princess, is not the name of an Arab girl; you have to remember that the story is supposed to be happening somewhere in China.
ON THE FOURTEENTH NIGHT
Sheherazade said:
Indeed, one day among all days, as Aladdin was talking in front of a shop with some merchants of his friends, he saw circulating through the souks two criers of the sultan, armed with long sticks, and he heard them shouting together, aloud: “O all of you, merchants and inhabitants! by the order of our magnanimous master, the king of time and the lord of ages and moments, know that you must close your shops at once and shut yourself up in your houses, all doors closed without and within! because the unique pearl, the marvelous, the beneficent, our young mistress Badrou'l-Boudour, the full moon of full moons, daughter of our glorious sultan, is going to pass by to take her bath in the hammam! May the bath be delicious for her! As for those who dare to break the order and look through doors or windows, they will be punished by the sword, the stake, or the gibbet! Notice is therefore given to those who want to keep their blood in their necks!"
Hearing this public cry, Aladdin was seized with an irresistible desire to see the sultan's daughter pass by, this marvelous Badrou'l-Budour whom the whole city was talking about and whose moonlike beauty and perfections were praised. So, instead of doing like everyone else and running to lock himself in his house, he had the idea of going in all haste to the hammam and hiding behind the big door, so as to be able, without being seen, to look through the corner and admire the sultan's daughter at ease as she enters the hammam.
He had hardly been there for a few moments when he saw the princess' procession arrive, preceded by the crowd of eunuchs. And he saw her herself in the midst of her women, like the moon among the stars, covered with her silken veils. But as soon as she reached the threshold of the hammam, she hastened to unveil her face; and she appeared in all the solar brilliance of a beauty that surpassed all that could have been said of her. She was, in fact, an adolescent girl of fifteen, rather younger than older, straight as the letter aleph, of a height that defied the young branch of the banyan tree, with a dazzling forehead like the crescent moon in the sky during the month of Ramadan, eyebrows slender and perfectly traced, black eyes, large and languorous like the eyes of a thirsty gazelle, modestly lowered eyelids like two rose petals, a flawless nose like a blade of choice, a petite mouth with two incarnadine lips, a complexion of a whiteness washed in the water of the Salsabil fountain, a smiling chin, teeth like hailstones of equal size, a dove neck, and the rest, which could not be seen, accordingly. And it is of her that the poet said:
Her magic eyes, sharpened with black kohl, pierce hearts with their sharp arrows;
It is from the roses of her cheeks that the roses of the bouquets borrow their colors;
And her hair is a dark night illuminated by the radiance of her forehead.
When the princess arrived at the door of the hammam, and as she no longer feared prying eyes, she lifted her little veil over her face, and thus she appeared in all her beauty. And Aladdin saw her, and suddenly he felt his blood running three times faster in his head. And it was only then that he realized, he who had never had the opportunity to see women's faces uncovered, that there could be beautiful women and ugly women, and that they were not all old and like her mother. And this discovery joined to the incomparable beauty of the princess, amazed him, and immobilized him in ecstasy, behind the door. And the princess had already entered the hammam a long time ago, and he still stood there dumbfounded and trembling with emotion. And, when he was able to come to his senses a little, he decided to slip out of his hiding place and return to his house, but in what a state of change and upheaval! And he thought: “By Allah! who could ever have imagined such a beautiful creature on earth? Blessed is He who formed it and endowed it with perfection!" And, full of a murmur of thoughts, he entered his mother's room and, his back broken with emotion and his heart wholly seized with love, he let himself fall on the divan, and did not move anymore.
However, his mother was not long to see that he was in such an extraordinary state, and she approached him and questioned him anxiously. But he refused to give her the slightest answer. So she brought him the tray of luncheon, but he would not eat. And she asked him: “What is the matter, my child? Do you have pain in any place? Tell me! what happened to you? And he ends up answering: "Leave me alone!" And she insisted that he should eat, and pressed him so much, that he consented to touch the food; but he ate infinitely less than usual; and he kept his eyes lowered, and kept silent, unwilling to answer the anxious questions of his mother. And he remained in this state of thought, pallor, and dejection until the next day.
Then Aladdin's mother, very anxious, approached him, with tears in her eyes, and said, "O my son, by Allah upon you! tell me what you feel, and do not torture my heart anymore with your silence. If you have any disease, don't hide it from me! and I will immediately fetch you the doctor. And precisely today we have, passing through our city, a famous doctor from the land of the Arabs, whom our sultan has brought expressly to consult him. And we only talk about its science and its great remedies! Do you want me to go get it for you?"
— At this point in her narration, Scheherazade saw the morning appear and quietly fell silent.
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