He then considered all the precious
stones which were in the jewelers' quarter, but found that their
biggest was not worth his smallest.
On this wise he ceased not every day repairing to the bazaar and
making himself familiar with the folk and winning their loving will,
and inquiring anent selling and buying, giving and taking, the dear
and the cheap, until one day of the days when, after rising at dawn
and donning his dress he went forth, as was his wont, to the jewelers'
bazaar and as he passed along it he heard the crier crying as follows:
"By command of our magnificent master, the King of the Time and the
Lord of the Age and the Tide, let all the folk lock up their shops and
stores and retire within their houses, for that the Lady Badr
al-Budur, daughter of the Sultan, designeth to visit the hammam. And
whoso gainsayeth the order shall be punished with death penalty, and
be his blood upon his own neck!" But when Aladdin heard the
proclamation, he longed to look upon the King's daughter and said in
his mind, "Indeed all the lieges talk of her beauty and loveliness,
and the end of my desires is to see her.
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