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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.’
