-------------------------------------------
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.
