Aladdin and the Magic Lamp
This time, Aladdin asked the genie of the lamp for a big gift. And he sent again his mother to the sultan.
And the sultan was flabbergasted when he saw the dowry sent to him by Aladdin.
Even the grand-vizier could not object to the marriage of Aladdin and Princess Badrou'l-Budour.
ON THE TWENTY-FIFTH NIGHT
Sheherazade said:
Aladdin said to his mother: "So refresh your eyes and calm your mind. And only prepare the meal, because I am very hungry. And leave it to me to satisfy the king!"
Now, as soon as the mother had left to go to the souk to buy the necessary provisions, Aladdin hastened to enter and lock himself in his room. And he took the lamp and rubbed it in the place that he knew. And immediately the genie appeared, who, after bowing before him, said: "I am in your hands, here, your slave is here! Speak, what do you want? I am the servant of the lamp, whether in the air I fly, or on the earth, I crawl!" And Aladdin said to him: "Know, O genie, that the sultan is willing to grant me his daughter, the marvelous Badrou'l-Budour whom you know, but it is on condition that I send her as soon as possible forty dishes of solid gold, of pure quality, filled to the brim with jeweled fruits similar to those of the porcelain dish, which I had gathered from the trees of the garden where I found the lamp of which you are the servant. But that's not all! He asks me, moreover, to bring him these golden dishes filled with jewels, forty adolescent slaves, beautiful as moons, who are led by forty black boys, handsome, solid, and very magnificently dressed. So this is what I demand of you, in my turn! Hasten then to satisfy me, by virtue of the power I have over you as master of the lamp!" And the genie answered: "I listen and I obey!" and disappeared, only to return after a while.
And he was accompanied by the eighty slaves in question, both male and female, whom he arranged in the yard, along the wall of the house. And the female slaves each carried on their heads a large basin of solid gold filled to the brim with pearls, diamonds, rubies, emeralds, turquoises, and a thousand other kinds of precious stones, in the shape of fruits. of all colors and all sizes. And each basin was covered with a silk gauze woven with gold florets. And truly the jewels were more marvelous, and by far, than those presented to the sultan in the porcelain. And the genie, once he had finished arranging the eighty slaves against the wall, came and bowed before Aladdin and asked him: "Have you still, O my master, anything to require of the servant of the lamp?" And Aladdin said, "No, nothing else yet!" And immediately the genie disappeared.
Now, at this moment, Aladdin's mother entered the house, laden with the provisions she had bought at the souk. And she was very surprised to see her house invaded by so many people; and she believed, at first, that it was the sultan who sent to seize Aladdin to punish him for the insolence of his request. But Aladdin wasted no time in dissuading her, for before she had time to remove her veil from her face, he said to her, "Do not waste time removing your veil, O mother, for you will have to come out, without delay, to accompany to the palace those slaves whom you see ranged in our courtyard! The forty female slaves bear, as you can see, the dowry demanded by the sultan as the price of his daughter! So I beg you, even before preparing the meal, to do me the favor of accompanying the procession, to present it to the Sultan!"
Immediately Aladdin's mother brought the eighty slaves out of her house in good order, placing them one behind the other, in groups of two: an adolescent slave immediately preceded by a black boy, and so on. to the last group. And each group was separated from the previous one by an interval of ten feet. And when the last group had passed through the gate, Aladdin's mother walked behind the procession. And Aladdin, very reassured about the result, closed the door and went to his room to quietly await his mother's return.
Now, as soon as the first group had arrived in the street, the passers-by began to gather; and, when the procession was complete, the street was filled with an immense crowd full of rumors and exclamations. And the whole souk rushed around the procession to admire such a magnificent and extraordinary spectacle. Because each group, on its own, was a finished marvel! for her admirable attire of taste and splendor, her beauty, composed of a white beauty of a woman and a black beauty of a boy, their handsome air, their advantageous demeanor, their grave and cadenced gait, at equal distance, the brilliance of the basin of jewels which each adolescent girl wore on her head, the fires set off by the jewels enshrined in the gold belts of the black boys, the sparks which sprang from their brocade caps, in which egrets swayed, all this formed a spectacle charming, like no other, which made the people not doubt for a moment that it was a question of the arrival at the palace of some astonishing son of a king or a sultan.
And the procession, amidst the amazement of an entire people, ends up arriving at the palace. And as soon as the guards and doormen saw the first group, they were in such amazement that, seized with respect and admiration, they spontaneously formed the hedge in its path. And their leader, at the sight of the first black boy, persuaded that the sultan of the boys in person was coming to visit the king, advanced towards him and prostrated himself and wished to kiss the bottom of his robe; but then he saw the marvelous line following him. And, at the same time, the first black boy said to him, smiling, for he had received the necessary instructions from the genie: "I am not a king, and we all are only the slaves of the one who will come when the time is right!" And, having thus spoken, he passed through the door, followed by the adolescent girl who carried the golden basin, and the whole line of harmonious groups. And the eighty slaves crossed the first court and went to arrange themselves in good order in the second court, which was just in front of the diwan.
Now, as soon as the sultan, who was presiding at the time over the affairs of the kingdom, saw in the courtyard this magnificent procession which effaced by its splendor the splendor of all that he possessed in the palace, he immediately had the diwan evacuated, and gave the order to receive the new arrivals. And they entered gravely, two by two, and ranged themselves slowly, forming a large crescent in front of the sultan's throne. And the adolescent slaves, helped by their black companions, each placed the platters they were carrying on the carpet. Then the eighty slaves all together prostrated themselves and kissed the earth in the hands of the sultan, to get up immediately and, all at once, discover with the same skillful gesture the basins overflowing with their marvelous fruits. And, with their arms crossed on their chests, they remained standing, in an attitude of the deepest respect.
Only then did Aladdin's mother, who came last, advance to the middle of the crescent formed by the forty alternating groups, and, after the usual prostrations and salams, she said to the king, who had become quite silent from this unparalleled spectacle: “O great king, my son Aladdin, your slave, send me with the dowry you asked for as the price of Sett Badrou'l-Budour, your honorable daughter! And he charges me to tell you that you were mistaken in the appreciation of the value of the princess and that all that is far below her merits! But he hopes that you will excuse him for sending so little and that you will accept this small tribute, in expectation of what he will do in the future!"
Thus spoke the mother of Aladdin. But the king, who was hardly in a condition to fully understand what she was saying to him, stood dumbfounded and wide-eyed at the sight before him. And he looked alternately at the forty basins, the contents of the forty basins, the adolescent slave girls who had carried the basins, and the black boys who had accompanied the carriers of the basins. And he did not know which he should admire more, these jewels which were the most extraordinary that he had ever seen in the world, or these adolescent slaves who were like moons, or these black slaves who were like so many kings! And he stayed like that for a long time, without being able to utter a word or take his eyes off the wonders he had before him. And finally, instead of addressing Aladdin's mother to express his feelings about what she brought him, he turned to his grand-vizier and said: "By my life! what becomes of the riches we possess and what becomes of my palace before such magnificence? And what are we to think of the man who can, in less time than it takes to wish for them, achieve such splendors and send them to us? And what becomes of the merits of my daughter herself before such a profusion of beauty?" And the vizier, despite all the spite and resentment he felt at all that had happened to his son, could not help saying: “Yes, by Allah! all this is beautiful; but, all the same, not worth the unique treasure that is Princess Badrou'l-Boudour!" And the king said: “By Allah! It's worth it and it's far beyond the value! That's why I no longer think I'm making a fool's bargain by granting her in marriage to a man as rich, as generous, and as magnificent as Lord Aladdin is, our son!" And he turned towards the other viziers and the emirs and the notables who surrounded him and questioned them with a look. And all responded by bowing deeply to the ground three times, to show their assent to the words of their king.
Then the king hesitated no longer...
— At this point in her narration, Scheherazade saw the morning appear and quietly fell silent.
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