" "By what
means," inquired the Sultan, "shall we put off the man when I
pledged my promise, and the word of the kings is their bond?"
Replied the Wazir: "O my lord, my rede is that thou demand of him
forty platters made of pure sand gold and full of gems (such as the
woman brought thee aforetime), with forty white slave girls to carry
the platters and forty black eunuch slaves." The King rejoined: "By
Allah, O Wazir, thou hast spoken to the purpose, seeing that such
thing is not possible, and by this way we shall be freed."
Then quoth he to Aladdin's mother: "Do thou go and tell thy son that
I am a man of my word even as I plighted it to him, but on condition
that he have power to pay the dower of my daughter. And that which I
require of him is a settlement consisting of twoscore platters of
virgin gold, all brimming with gems the like of those thou
broughtest to me, and as many white handmaids to carry them and
twoscore black eunuch slaves to serve and escort the bearers. An thy
son avail hereto, I will marry him with my daughter." Thereupon she
returned home wagging her head and saying in her mind: "Whence can
my poor boy procure these platters and such jewels? And granted that
he return to the enchanted treasury and pluck them from the
trees- which, however, I hold impossible- yet given that he bring
them, whence shall he come by the girls and the blacks?" Nor did she
leave communing with herself till she reached her home, where she
found Aladdin awaiting her, and she lost no time in saying: "O my son,
did I not tell thee never to fancy that thy power would extend to
the Lady Badr al-Budur, and that such a matter is not possible to folk
like ourselves?"
"Recount to me the news," quoth he, so quoth she: "O my child,
verily the Sultan received me with all honor according to his
custom, and meseemeth his intentions toward us be friendly.
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