Aladdin and the Magic Lamp
Now that Aladdin and his wife Badrou'l-Boudour are reunited, they plot their revenge against the Maghrebi.
ON THE THIRTY-SEVENTH NIGHT
Sheherazade said:
Then, suddenly, the princess' servant loudly cried, exclaiming: "Ya setti, ya setti!" Here is my master Aladdin, here is my master Aladdin! It's under the palace windows! »
At these words of his servant, Badrou'l-Budour rushed to the window and saw Aladdin, who also saw her. And they both almost flew away with joy. And, first, Badrou'l-Boudour was able to open his mouth, and shouted to Aladdin: "O my darling, come quickly, come quickly! my servant comes down to open the secret door for you! You can come up here without fear. The cursed magician is absent for the moment!" And, the servant having opened the secret door to him, Aladdin went up to his wife's apartment and received her in his bosom. And they embraced each other, drunk with joy, crying and laughing. And, when they had calmed down a little, they sat down next to each other, and Aladdin said to his wife: "O Badrou'l-Budour, I wish, above all things, to ask you what happened to the copper lamp that I had left in my room, on a stool, before I left for the hunt!" And the princess exclaimed: “Ah! my darling, it is precisely this lamp that is the cause of our misfortune! But it's my fault, my own, that all this happened!" And she told Aladdin all that had happened in the palace during her absence, and how, for the purpose of laughing at the madness of the seller of lamps, she had exchanged the lamp of the stool for a new lamp, and all that that followed, without forgetting a detail. But there is no point in repeating it. And she concludes, saying: "And it was only after we were transported here, with the palace, that the accursed Maghrebi came to reveal to me that he had, by the power of his witchcraft and the virtues of the exchanged lamp, managed to remove me from your affection, to possess me. And he told me that he was from the Maghreb and that we were in the Maghreb, his country!" So Aladdin, without making the slightest reproach, asked her: "And what does this cursed man want to do with you?" She said: "Every day, once, nothing more, he comes to pay me a visit and tries in every way to seduce me." And, as he is full of treachery, he never ceased, to overcome my resistance, to affirm to me that the sultan had had your head cut off as an impostor, and that you were, after all, only the son of poor people, of a wretched tailor named Mustapha, and that you owed to him alone the fortune and the honors you had achieved! But, until now, he has received from me only silence of contempt and the turning of the face. And he is obliged, each time, to withdraw with his ears down and his nose elongated! And I feared, each time, that he would resort to violence! But here you are, Allah be praised!" And Aladdin said to her: “Tell me now, O Badrou’l-Boudour, in which place of the palace is the lamp hidden if you know, the lamp that this accursed Maghrebi succeeded in taking away from me?" She said, 'He never leaves her at the palace, but he carries it continually in his bosom. How many times have I seen it come out in my presence, to show it to me like a trophy!" So Aladdin said to her, "That's good! but, by your life! he won't show it for long!" Then he added: "I know how to punish our perfidious enemy! For this purpose, I will only ask you to leave me alone for a moment in this room! And I'll call you when it's time!" And Badrou'l-Boudour left the room and went to join her attendants.
Then Aladdin rubbed the magic ring he had on his finger, and said to the genie who presented himself: “O genie of the ring, do you know the various kinds of soporific powders? He replied, "That's what I know best!" Aladdin said, "In that case, I order you to bring me an ounce of Cretan bong, one catch of which is capable of knocking down an elephant!" And the genie disappeared, but returned after a while, holding between his fingers a small case which he handed to Aladdin, saying: "Here, O master of the ring, of the Cretan bong of the finest quality! And he went away. And Aladdin called his wife Badrou'l-Boudour and said to her: "O my mistress Badrou'l-Boudour, if you want us to triumph over this accursed North African, you only have to follow the advice I am going to give you. And time is running out, since you told me that the Maghrebi was about to arrive here, to try to seduce you! Here is what you will have to do!" And he said to her: "You will do such and such a thing, and you will say such and such a thing to him!" And he told her at length how she should behave towards the magician. And he added: "As for me, I am going to hide in this cupboard. And I'll get out of it when the time is right!" And he handed her the soporific bong, saying, "Don't forget the way I just told you!" And he left her to go and lock himself in the cupboard.
So Princess Badrou'l-Budour, despite her reluctance to fulfill the role in question, did not want to lose the opportunity to take revenge on the magician and set out to follow the instructions of her husband Aladdin. So she got up and had her women comb her hair and do her hair in the way that best suited her moon face, and had herself dressed in the most beautiful dress in her wardrobes. Then she tied her waist with a gold belt encrusted with diamonds, and adorned her neck with a necklace of noble pearls of the same size, except that in the middle which was the size of a walnut; and she slipped gold bracelets around her wrists and ankles, the jewels of which blended marvelously with the colors of the other finery. And fragrant and like some chosen houri, and brighter than the brightest of queens and sultanas, she gazed tenderly at herself in her mirror, while her women marveled at her beauty and exclaimed in admiration. And she stretched out nonchalantly on her cushions, awaiting the arrival of the magician...
— At this point in her narration, Scheherazade saw the morning appear and quietly fell silent.
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