The King now applied himself to making
friendship with Aladdin and conversed with the youth, who answered him
with all courtesy and eloquence, as though he had been bred in the
palaces of the kings or he had lived with them his daily life. And the
more the talk was prolonged between them, the more did the Sultan's
pleasure and delight increase, hearing his son-in-law's readiness of
reply and his sweet flow of language.
But after they had eaten and drunken and the trays were removed, the
King bade summon the kazis and witnesses, who presently attended and
knitted the knot and wrote out the contract writ between Aladdin and
the Lady Badr al-Budur. And presently the bridegroom arose and would
have fared forth, when his father-in-law withheld him and asked:
"Whither away, O my child? The bride fetes have begun and the marriage
is made and the tie is tied and the writ is written." He replied: "O
my lord the King, 'tis my desire to edify, for the Lady Badr al-Budur,
a pavilion befitting her station and high degree, nor can I visit
her before so doing. But, Inshallah! the building shall be finished
within the shortest time, by the utmost endeavor of thy slave and by
the kindly regard of thy Hihgness.
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