Genies, Meanies, and Magic Rings, page 7
“Don’t worry, Mother. I just need to be silent right now. I’ll tell you all about it this evening at dinner, when I’ve had a chance to let this sink in.”
“To let what sink in?”
“I’ll tell you all about it,” Aladdin repeated.
His mother was burning with curiosity, but she left him alone.
By dinnertime Aladdin was ready to talk. “Mother,” he said, “I have fallen in love.”
“Oh, so that’s why you look that way,” his mother said, smiling. “That’s wonderful. Who is she?”
“She’s the most beautiful girl you can imagine,” Aladdin said.
“Does she come from a good family?” Aladdin’s mother asked. “I hope she does. I don’t want you to marry into a family of riffraff.”
“Yes, Mother,” Aladdin said. “She comes from a very good family. Her name is Laila. Her father is His Majesty the king.”
“Princess Laila?” Aladdin’s mother said. “Are you out of your mind? Have you gone stark raving mad?”
“No, Mother,” Aladdin said. “It’s just that I’m in love. The princess is my heart’s desire, and I won’t rest until I have married her.”
“My poor child,” Aladdin’s mother said, “be reasonable, I beg you. There’s no way in the world that you could marry the king’s daughter. Even if she were to love you, the king would never let her marry a commoner. He would never even let her marry a nobleman. In fact, he wouldn’t let her marry anyone but a king who was equal to him in rank and wealth. It’s not a possibility. Surely you can recognize that.”
“I recognize nothing of the sort, Mother,” Aladdin said. “I know that she will marry me and that the king will be happy to have me as a son-in-law.”
“My poor boy, you’ve gone completely crazy. You’ve become just as foolish a dreamer as you used to be when you were a child. How can the king possibly accept you? Your father was a poor tailor, and his father was poor before him, and his father’s father as well. And my family was no better. We had to struggle all our lives just to keep food on the table and not sink to the level of the beggars in the street. Please, I implore you, give up this insane fantasy. There are lots of pretty girls who would be only too happy to marry a rich young man like you.”
“Mother, Princess Laila is the girl I’m in love with, and Princess Laila is the girl I’m going to marry.”
“But, Aladdin, how can you do that? She doesn’t know you exist. How can you get to see the king to ask for her hand in marriage? It takes even important people years before they can arrange a meeting with him. There’s a waiting list of thousands!”
“I have a plan,” Aladdin said. “As a matter of fact, my plan involves you.”
“Me? What can I have to do with this madness?”
“Well, Mother, I would like you to go to court and ask the king, on my behalf, for the hand of his daughter in marriage.”
“Oh, son,” said Aladdin’s mother, “you are making no sense at all. How is such a plan possible? Even if I could get to speak with the king—even if I could manage to make such an outrageous request—the king would think I was a madwoman. ‘Your Majesty: my son, the son of Ismail the tailor, asks for Princess Laila’s hand in marriage.’ They would put me in chains and haul me off to the asylum. They might even cut off my head.”
“It doesn’t make any sense to you now,” Aladdin said. “But trust me. The jewels that I brought home from the cave are beyond price. There’s not a king in the world who can match even the smallest of them, and not a king in the world who wouldn’t accept their owner as his son-in-law. Let’s take some of them now and arrange them in our best porcelain bowl as a present for the king.”
Shaking her head, Aladdin’s mother brought the bowl to the kitchen table. Meanwhile, Aladdin pulled up the loose board in his bedroom, took out a dozen jewels, and brought them to the kitchen—a diamond and an emerald bigger than grapefruits, and three rubies, two emeralds, two sapphires, two pearls, and a diamond that were all as big as oranges. He arranged them in a pyramid, with the brightest gems on top.
“They certainly are splendid,” Aladdin’s mother said. “This is a present truly fit for a king.”
“And I promise you, Mother, that the king will be delighted. Just make my request as you give him the jewels. And don’t worry. Everything will be fine.”
Chapter 9
Early the next morning Aladdin’s mother went to the palace, carrying the bowl of jewels wrapped in a large cloth. She went straight to the assembly hall and found a seat in the back row. Then she waited as the noblemen and ministers of state filed in, followed by a large crowd of merchants, lawyers, foreigners, people holding petitions, people holding babies, wealthy people dressed in gorgeous robes, and poor people dressed in thread-bare clothes. It seemed as if everyone wanted something from the king.
Finally the king entered the room from another door. The audience stood up and waited, with their arms crossed over their chests. After the king had sat down on his throne, he motioned for all to be seated. They took their places according to rank, with the wealthiest and most powerful in the front rows. Then, one by one, people stood and read their petitions to the king, and he decided each case according to its merits. Things proceeded in this way until noon, when a court official hit a large brass gong, signaling that the session was over for the day.
Aladdin’s mother went to the palace every day. Every day she sat in the back row, waited until the end of the session, and returned home carrying the bowl of jewels. “Be patient, Mother,” Aladdin would tell her. “Sooner or later you’ll have an opportunity to speak with the king. I don’t know how it will happen, but it will.”
Eventually the king began to notice her. After a month, he turned to his prime minister and said, “Have you noticed a woman in the back row? She has been coming to the assembly hall every single day for weeks now.”
“What woman, Your Majesty?” the prime minister said. “I haven’t seen anyone in the back row but the usual riffraff.”
“No,” said the king, “this is quite an unusual woman. She doesn’t talk, and she doesn’t fidget. She seems very determined.”
“Well, Your Majesty,” the prime minister said, “she’s probably determined to make a complaint about her husband or determined to prove that her neighbor stole an egg from under her favorite hen. You know how ridiculously petty these commoners can be.”
“And every day she comes carrying something wrapped in a cloth,” the king said. “I keep wondering what it could be. It’s quite large. It looks rather heavy.”
“Oh, Your Majesty,” the prime minister said, “it’s probably a couple of bricks that her husband threw at her. The woman is going to prove it by bringing the evidence.”
“That woman interests me,” said the king. “Bring her to me if she comes to the next session.”
“Yes, of course, Your Majesty,” the prime minister said, bowing deeply. “Your wish is my command.”
The next morning the prime minister called for Aladdin’s mother to be brought forward to the throne. She bowed, bent over, put the bowl on the floor, and bowed again. “All blessings to Your Majesty,” she said. “I wish you health, happiness, peace throughout your kingdom, prosperity, and a long life.”
“Yes, yes,” said the king. “But tell me, why is it that you’re here? I have seen you every day for the last several weeks. What is it that you wish from me?”
Aladdin’s mother began to tremble. “Your Majesty,” she said, “I do have a request. But I am frightened that it will offend you.”
“Oh, fiddlesticks!” the prime minister said. “Have no fear, my good woman. Don’t you know that His Majesty is known far and wide—throughout the civilized world, in fact—for his extraordinary kindness and mercy? State your request, and His Majesty will answer you as he sees fit.”
“Well, Your Majesty,” said Aladdin’s mother to the king, “I have a son, a dear boy named Aladdin, who has fallen in love with your daughter, the beautiful princess Laila—may God bless and keep her—and my son requests the princess’s hand in marriage.”
“This is an outrage!” the prime minister shouted. “Shall I call the guards, Your Majesty? The woman is obviously insane.”
Aladdin’s mother waited for him to finish, then said, “And my son would like to give you a small present, Your Majesty, as a token of his loyalty and appreciation.”
“A present?” said the king. “What kind of present?”
“This, Your Majesty,” Aladdin’s mother said, picking up the bowl and handing it to the king.
As the king removed the cloth his jaw dropped and his eyes bulged. Never had he seen such a dazzling collection of jewels. Never had he even imagined that jewels could be so immense, so brilliant, so beautiful as the jewels in this porcelain bowl. One by one he picked them up and examined them.
“My goodness gracious!” he finally said to the prime minister. “Have you ever seen anything so glorious? These make the jewels in my treasury seem absolutely puny. What do you think? Have you ever seen jewels as glorious as these?”
“Never, Your Majesty,” the prime minister said.
“Well,” said the king, “whoever can give such a magnificent present as this certainly deserves to become my son-in-law.”
“But, Your Majesty,” the prime minister said, whispering into the king’s ear, “this woman is a commoner. Look at the way she’s dressed; listen to the way she speaks.”
“What does your husband do, my good woman?” the king asked.
“He is dead these many years, Your Majesty,” Aladdin’s mother said. “He was a tailor.”
“You see, Your Majesty?” the prime minister whispered. “She’s not only a commoner, but she comes from the lower classes. How can you allow such a low person as the son of a tailor to marry Princess Laila? It would be shameful. It would be beneath your dignity.”
“On the other hand,” the king said, whispering into the prime minister’s ear, “her son is a most extraordinarily wealthy man. How else could he be the owner of such rare jewels? However humble his origins, he seems to be a man who could buy and sell me a thousand times over. It would be a very prudent thing to ally myself to such a man, don’t you think?”
“At least have her wait, Your Majesty,” the prime minister whispered. “Tell her to wait while you prepare for the wedding.”
“All right,” said the king. Then, turning to Aladdin’s mother, he said, “Tell your son that I accept his request and that I thank him for the jewels. He may marry my daughter in three months’ time. Once the wedding preparations are completed, he may come to the palace to claim her hand in marriage.”
Aladdin’s mother thanked the king and hurried home, smiling.
Chapter 10
Exactly three months later Aladdin’s mother appeared at the palace. “Your Majesty,” she said to the king, “three months have gone by, and now it’s time to fulfill your promise.”
“My promise?” said the king. “What promise?”
“Surely, Your Majesty, you remember that you promised your daughter to my son, Aladdin. You told me that once the wedding preparations were completed, he could claim her hand in marriage.”
“Ah, yes,” said the king. “But be patient, my good woman. Just wait a few more minutes, while I discuss the matter.”
He turned to the prime minister and said, “What should I do? I did give her my word. And one’s word is one’s reputation. In this, kings are just like everyone else.”
“That’s true, Your Majesty,” the prime minister said. “But how can you marry the princess to the son of a commoner like this? Look how plainly she is dressed. These people are unworthy of being taken into the family of your lowest servant, much less into your own family.”
“But aren’t you forgetting his gift?” the king said. “It was a magnificent gift.”
“And you get to keep it, Your Majesty. It’s yours, and you owe him nothing in return, because you are the king.”
“Still,” the king said, “I don’t feel right about promising him my daughter and then breaking my word. Isn’t there some other way?”
“Of course there is,” said the prime minister. “Just tell this beggar that her son can have Princess Laila if he pays the marriage price for her, and then make the price so high that he can’t possibly pay it.”
“That’s a fine idea,” said the king. Then, turning to Aladdin’s mother, he said, “My good woman, I have finished my consultation. And you are quite right: the three months have passed, and it’s time for your son to marry my daughter. But there is one small detail that needs to be taken care of first.”
“What detail is that?” asked Aladdin’s mother.
“The matter of the marriage price,” the king said.
“The marriage price?” Aladdin’s mother said.
“Yes,” said the king. “As the princess’s marriage price, your son must provide me with forty large bowls of pure gold, filled to the brim with jewels like the ones you brought me. Each bowl must be carried by a slave and preceded by a slave girl. If your son can pay this marriage price, I will happily give him my daughter.”
Aladdin’s mother went home with a heavy heart. “All is lost,” she said to Aladdin. “I knew the king would never let people like us marry his daughter. It was a foolish dream from the beginning.”
“What happened?” Aladdin asked.
When his mother told him, he laughed. “Is that all? I don’t see a problem in the king’s demand. Actually, I thought he would ask for a lot more.”
“A lot more?” Aladdin’s mother said. “He asked for more than anyone could bring him. He might as well have said, ‘Bring me the moon.’ You’ll never be able to pay the marriage price. Why don’t you just give up your fantasy, and marry some nice girl from a merchant family?”
“Now, Mother,” Aladdin said. “Don’t you worry. How about going out to the market now and getting us something good for dinner? I want the house to myself.”
After she went out, Aladdin got the lamp from his room and rubbed it. All at once there was a flash of light, a sound like a long chord played by a hundred violins, and there before his eyes stood the genie of the lamp, in his vest of royal-blue velvet and his royal-blue silk pants. “O Master,” the genie said, “your wish is my command. Ask me for anything your heart desires, and I shall make it happen. For I am the slave of whoever owns the blessed lamp.”
“Hello,” Aladdin said. “It’s nice to see you again, after all these years.”
The genie bowed.
“I have a job for you,” Aladdin said. “Here is what I need: Bring me forty large bowls of pure gold, filled to the brim with fruits from the garden where I found your lamp. And also bring me forty slaves to carry the bowls and forty slave girls to walk in front of them.”
“Yes, Master,” the genie said, then vanished. A split second later he reappeared with the bowls, the slaves, and the slave girls. “O Master,” he said, “here is what you desired. Is there anything else?”
“Not now,” Aladdin said. “If there’s something else, I’ll call on you.”
When Aladdin’s mother returned from the market, she was astonished at the golden bowls, the slaves, and the slave girls. They filled her small house and spilled out into the small yard behind it. When she took off the silver cloths embroidered with golden flowers that covered the bowls, she could see that each one was brimming with diamonds, pearls, emeralds, rubies, sapphires, and other precious stones even larger than the ones Aladdin had sent to the king.
“Mother,” Aladdin said, “please go right back to the palace and present all this to the king, with my compliments.” Then he commanded the forty slaves to pick up the forty golden bowls and to carry them, on their heads, out the door. Each slave was to be preceded by a slave girl, as the king had required.
As the slaves and slave girls issued into the street, the neighbors began to gather around. Soon there was a large crowd. People could hardly believe their eyes, so brilliant was the spectacle. The slaves and slave girls were all gorgeous; they had perfect features and perfectly formed bodies, and each one was beautiful in a different way. They were dressed in multicolored silk robes lined with cloth of gold and studded with diamonds, rubies, and emeralds, and their turbans were hung with strings of the most exquisite pearls. As they walked through the streets to the palace, they moved in perfect symmetry, like dancers.
When the first of the slaves reached the palace gates, the captain of the guards bowed deeply. “Welcome, Your Majesty,” he said, thinking that some unknown king had arrived on a visit of state.
“You are mistaken, sir,” the slave said. “We are only slaves. Our master will come later.”
As the procession filed into the palace, the noblemen and ministers gathered to stare, just as Aladdin’s neighbors had.
Although they all came from rich and powerful families, they had never seen such a display of magnificence as this. They were dazzled by the beauty of the slaves and slave girls, and many of the young men fell in love and wanted to propose on the spot.
Soon they were ushered into the assembly hall, where the king was still in council. Aladdin’s mother bowed and said, “Your Majesty, here is the princess’s marriage price. My son says that he is honored to present you with what you requested, and that the princess is worth a million times more than this.”
After she had finished, the forty slaves put down the golden bowls, and the forty slave girls took off the cloths that covered the bowls.
The king was dumbstruck. He was so astonished by the beauty of the slave girls, the majesty of the slaves, and the size and brilliance of the jewels that he was unable to speak for five minutes. Finally he turned to the prime minister and said, “Well, what do you think now? Is such a man worthy enough to marry my daughter?”
The prime minister bowed and was silent.
“Tell your son,” the king said to Aladdin’s mother, “that he may claim my daughter this very night. Tonight he and Princess Laila will be married.”
After Aladdin’s mother left, the king led the procession to the princess’s chambers. Princess Laila was as dazzled by the magnificence of Aladdin’s present as the king had been. What kind of man am I marrying? she thought. Certainly he is wealthy and generous beyond imagination. I hope that he is kind as well.
“To let what sink in?”
“I’ll tell you all about it,” Aladdin repeated.
His mother was burning with curiosity, but she left him alone.
By dinnertime Aladdin was ready to talk. “Mother,” he said, “I have fallen in love.”
“Oh, so that’s why you look that way,” his mother said, smiling. “That’s wonderful. Who is she?”
“She’s the most beautiful girl you can imagine,” Aladdin said.
“Does she come from a good family?” Aladdin’s mother asked. “I hope she does. I don’t want you to marry into a family of riffraff.”
“Yes, Mother,” Aladdin said. “She comes from a very good family. Her name is Laila. Her father is His Majesty the king.”
“Princess Laila?” Aladdin’s mother said. “Are you out of your mind? Have you gone stark raving mad?”
“No, Mother,” Aladdin said. “It’s just that I’m in love. The princess is my heart’s desire, and I won’t rest until I have married her.”
“My poor child,” Aladdin’s mother said, “be reasonable, I beg you. There’s no way in the world that you could marry the king’s daughter. Even if she were to love you, the king would never let her marry a commoner. He would never even let her marry a nobleman. In fact, he wouldn’t let her marry anyone but a king who was equal to him in rank and wealth. It’s not a possibility. Surely you can recognize that.”
“I recognize nothing of the sort, Mother,” Aladdin said. “I know that she will marry me and that the king will be happy to have me as a son-in-law.”
“My poor boy, you’ve gone completely crazy. You’ve become just as foolish a dreamer as you used to be when you were a child. How can the king possibly accept you? Your father was a poor tailor, and his father was poor before him, and his father’s father as well. And my family was no better. We had to struggle all our lives just to keep food on the table and not sink to the level of the beggars in the street. Please, I implore you, give up this insane fantasy. There are lots of pretty girls who would be only too happy to marry a rich young man like you.”
“Mother, Princess Laila is the girl I’m in love with, and Princess Laila is the girl I’m going to marry.”
“But, Aladdin, how can you do that? She doesn’t know you exist. How can you get to see the king to ask for her hand in marriage? It takes even important people years before they can arrange a meeting with him. There’s a waiting list of thousands!”
“I have a plan,” Aladdin said. “As a matter of fact, my plan involves you.”
“Me? What can I have to do with this madness?”
“Well, Mother, I would like you to go to court and ask the king, on my behalf, for the hand of his daughter in marriage.”
“Oh, son,” said Aladdin’s mother, “you are making no sense at all. How is such a plan possible? Even if I could get to speak with the king—even if I could manage to make such an outrageous request—the king would think I was a madwoman. ‘Your Majesty: my son, the son of Ismail the tailor, asks for Princess Laila’s hand in marriage.’ They would put me in chains and haul me off to the asylum. They might even cut off my head.”
“It doesn’t make any sense to you now,” Aladdin said. “But trust me. The jewels that I brought home from the cave are beyond price. There’s not a king in the world who can match even the smallest of them, and not a king in the world who wouldn’t accept their owner as his son-in-law. Let’s take some of them now and arrange them in our best porcelain bowl as a present for the king.”
Shaking her head, Aladdin’s mother brought the bowl to the kitchen table. Meanwhile, Aladdin pulled up the loose board in his bedroom, took out a dozen jewels, and brought them to the kitchen—a diamond and an emerald bigger than grapefruits, and three rubies, two emeralds, two sapphires, two pearls, and a diamond that were all as big as oranges. He arranged them in a pyramid, with the brightest gems on top.
“They certainly are splendid,” Aladdin’s mother said. “This is a present truly fit for a king.”
“And I promise you, Mother, that the king will be delighted. Just make my request as you give him the jewels. And don’t worry. Everything will be fine.”
Chapter 9
Early the next morning Aladdin’s mother went to the palace, carrying the bowl of jewels wrapped in a large cloth. She went straight to the assembly hall and found a seat in the back row. Then she waited as the noblemen and ministers of state filed in, followed by a large crowd of merchants, lawyers, foreigners, people holding petitions, people holding babies, wealthy people dressed in gorgeous robes, and poor people dressed in thread-bare clothes. It seemed as if everyone wanted something from the king.
Finally the king entered the room from another door. The audience stood up and waited, with their arms crossed over their chests. After the king had sat down on his throne, he motioned for all to be seated. They took their places according to rank, with the wealthiest and most powerful in the front rows. Then, one by one, people stood and read their petitions to the king, and he decided each case according to its merits. Things proceeded in this way until noon, when a court official hit a large brass gong, signaling that the session was over for the day.
Aladdin’s mother went to the palace every day. Every day she sat in the back row, waited until the end of the session, and returned home carrying the bowl of jewels. “Be patient, Mother,” Aladdin would tell her. “Sooner or later you’ll have an opportunity to speak with the king. I don’t know how it will happen, but it will.”
Eventually the king began to notice her. After a month, he turned to his prime minister and said, “Have you noticed a woman in the back row? She has been coming to the assembly hall every single day for weeks now.”
“What woman, Your Majesty?” the prime minister said. “I haven’t seen anyone in the back row but the usual riffraff.”
“No,” said the king, “this is quite an unusual woman. She doesn’t talk, and she doesn’t fidget. She seems very determined.”
“Well, Your Majesty,” the prime minister said, “she’s probably determined to make a complaint about her husband or determined to prove that her neighbor stole an egg from under her favorite hen. You know how ridiculously petty these commoners can be.”
“And every day she comes carrying something wrapped in a cloth,” the king said. “I keep wondering what it could be. It’s quite large. It looks rather heavy.”
“Oh, Your Majesty,” the prime minister said, “it’s probably a couple of bricks that her husband threw at her. The woman is going to prove it by bringing the evidence.”
“That woman interests me,” said the king. “Bring her to me if she comes to the next session.”
“Yes, of course, Your Majesty,” the prime minister said, bowing deeply. “Your wish is my command.”
The next morning the prime minister called for Aladdin’s mother to be brought forward to the throne. She bowed, bent over, put the bowl on the floor, and bowed again. “All blessings to Your Majesty,” she said. “I wish you health, happiness, peace throughout your kingdom, prosperity, and a long life.”
“Yes, yes,” said the king. “But tell me, why is it that you’re here? I have seen you every day for the last several weeks. What is it that you wish from me?”
Aladdin’s mother began to tremble. “Your Majesty,” she said, “I do have a request. But I am frightened that it will offend you.”
“Oh, fiddlesticks!” the prime minister said. “Have no fear, my good woman. Don’t you know that His Majesty is known far and wide—throughout the civilized world, in fact—for his extraordinary kindness and mercy? State your request, and His Majesty will answer you as he sees fit.”
“Well, Your Majesty,” said Aladdin’s mother to the king, “I have a son, a dear boy named Aladdin, who has fallen in love with your daughter, the beautiful princess Laila—may God bless and keep her—and my son requests the princess’s hand in marriage.”
“This is an outrage!” the prime minister shouted. “Shall I call the guards, Your Majesty? The woman is obviously insane.”
Aladdin’s mother waited for him to finish, then said, “And my son would like to give you a small present, Your Majesty, as a token of his loyalty and appreciation.”
“A present?” said the king. “What kind of present?”
“This, Your Majesty,” Aladdin’s mother said, picking up the bowl and handing it to the king.
As the king removed the cloth his jaw dropped and his eyes bulged. Never had he seen such a dazzling collection of jewels. Never had he even imagined that jewels could be so immense, so brilliant, so beautiful as the jewels in this porcelain bowl. One by one he picked them up and examined them.
“My goodness gracious!” he finally said to the prime minister. “Have you ever seen anything so glorious? These make the jewels in my treasury seem absolutely puny. What do you think? Have you ever seen jewels as glorious as these?”
“Never, Your Majesty,” the prime minister said.
“Well,” said the king, “whoever can give such a magnificent present as this certainly deserves to become my son-in-law.”
“But, Your Majesty,” the prime minister said, whispering into the king’s ear, “this woman is a commoner. Look at the way she’s dressed; listen to the way she speaks.”
“What does your husband do, my good woman?” the king asked.
“He is dead these many years, Your Majesty,” Aladdin’s mother said. “He was a tailor.”
“You see, Your Majesty?” the prime minister whispered. “She’s not only a commoner, but she comes from the lower classes. How can you allow such a low person as the son of a tailor to marry Princess Laila? It would be shameful. It would be beneath your dignity.”
“On the other hand,” the king said, whispering into the prime minister’s ear, “her son is a most extraordinarily wealthy man. How else could he be the owner of such rare jewels? However humble his origins, he seems to be a man who could buy and sell me a thousand times over. It would be a very prudent thing to ally myself to such a man, don’t you think?”
“At least have her wait, Your Majesty,” the prime minister whispered. “Tell her to wait while you prepare for the wedding.”
“All right,” said the king. Then, turning to Aladdin’s mother, he said, “Tell your son that I accept his request and that I thank him for the jewels. He may marry my daughter in three months’ time. Once the wedding preparations are completed, he may come to the palace to claim her hand in marriage.”
Aladdin’s mother thanked the king and hurried home, smiling.
Chapter 10
Exactly three months later Aladdin’s mother appeared at the palace. “Your Majesty,” she said to the king, “three months have gone by, and now it’s time to fulfill your promise.”
“My promise?” said the king. “What promise?”
“Surely, Your Majesty, you remember that you promised your daughter to my son, Aladdin. You told me that once the wedding preparations were completed, he could claim her hand in marriage.”
“Ah, yes,” said the king. “But be patient, my good woman. Just wait a few more minutes, while I discuss the matter.”
He turned to the prime minister and said, “What should I do? I did give her my word. And one’s word is one’s reputation. In this, kings are just like everyone else.”
“That’s true, Your Majesty,” the prime minister said. “But how can you marry the princess to the son of a commoner like this? Look how plainly she is dressed. These people are unworthy of being taken into the family of your lowest servant, much less into your own family.”
“But aren’t you forgetting his gift?” the king said. “It was a magnificent gift.”
“And you get to keep it, Your Majesty. It’s yours, and you owe him nothing in return, because you are the king.”
“Still,” the king said, “I don’t feel right about promising him my daughter and then breaking my word. Isn’t there some other way?”
“Of course there is,” said the prime minister. “Just tell this beggar that her son can have Princess Laila if he pays the marriage price for her, and then make the price so high that he can’t possibly pay it.”
“That’s a fine idea,” said the king. Then, turning to Aladdin’s mother, he said, “My good woman, I have finished my consultation. And you are quite right: the three months have passed, and it’s time for your son to marry my daughter. But there is one small detail that needs to be taken care of first.”
“What detail is that?” asked Aladdin’s mother.
“The matter of the marriage price,” the king said.
“The marriage price?” Aladdin’s mother said.
“Yes,” said the king. “As the princess’s marriage price, your son must provide me with forty large bowls of pure gold, filled to the brim with jewels like the ones you brought me. Each bowl must be carried by a slave and preceded by a slave girl. If your son can pay this marriage price, I will happily give him my daughter.”
Aladdin’s mother went home with a heavy heart. “All is lost,” she said to Aladdin. “I knew the king would never let people like us marry his daughter. It was a foolish dream from the beginning.”
“What happened?” Aladdin asked.
When his mother told him, he laughed. “Is that all? I don’t see a problem in the king’s demand. Actually, I thought he would ask for a lot more.”
“A lot more?” Aladdin’s mother said. “He asked for more than anyone could bring him. He might as well have said, ‘Bring me the moon.’ You’ll never be able to pay the marriage price. Why don’t you just give up your fantasy, and marry some nice girl from a merchant family?”
“Now, Mother,” Aladdin said. “Don’t you worry. How about going out to the market now and getting us something good for dinner? I want the house to myself.”
After she went out, Aladdin got the lamp from his room and rubbed it. All at once there was a flash of light, a sound like a long chord played by a hundred violins, and there before his eyes stood the genie of the lamp, in his vest of royal-blue velvet and his royal-blue silk pants. “O Master,” the genie said, “your wish is my command. Ask me for anything your heart desires, and I shall make it happen. For I am the slave of whoever owns the blessed lamp.”
“Hello,” Aladdin said. “It’s nice to see you again, after all these years.”
The genie bowed.
“I have a job for you,” Aladdin said. “Here is what I need: Bring me forty large bowls of pure gold, filled to the brim with fruits from the garden where I found your lamp. And also bring me forty slaves to carry the bowls and forty slave girls to walk in front of them.”
“Yes, Master,” the genie said, then vanished. A split second later he reappeared with the bowls, the slaves, and the slave girls. “O Master,” he said, “here is what you desired. Is there anything else?”
“Not now,” Aladdin said. “If there’s something else, I’ll call on you.”
When Aladdin’s mother returned from the market, she was astonished at the golden bowls, the slaves, and the slave girls. They filled her small house and spilled out into the small yard behind it. When she took off the silver cloths embroidered with golden flowers that covered the bowls, she could see that each one was brimming with diamonds, pearls, emeralds, rubies, sapphires, and other precious stones even larger than the ones Aladdin had sent to the king.
“Mother,” Aladdin said, “please go right back to the palace and present all this to the king, with my compliments.” Then he commanded the forty slaves to pick up the forty golden bowls and to carry them, on their heads, out the door. Each slave was to be preceded by a slave girl, as the king had required.
As the slaves and slave girls issued into the street, the neighbors began to gather around. Soon there was a large crowd. People could hardly believe their eyes, so brilliant was the spectacle. The slaves and slave girls were all gorgeous; they had perfect features and perfectly formed bodies, and each one was beautiful in a different way. They were dressed in multicolored silk robes lined with cloth of gold and studded with diamonds, rubies, and emeralds, and their turbans were hung with strings of the most exquisite pearls. As they walked through the streets to the palace, they moved in perfect symmetry, like dancers.
When the first of the slaves reached the palace gates, the captain of the guards bowed deeply. “Welcome, Your Majesty,” he said, thinking that some unknown king had arrived on a visit of state.
“You are mistaken, sir,” the slave said. “We are only slaves. Our master will come later.”
As the procession filed into the palace, the noblemen and ministers gathered to stare, just as Aladdin’s neighbors had.
Although they all came from rich and powerful families, they had never seen such a display of magnificence as this. They were dazzled by the beauty of the slaves and slave girls, and many of the young men fell in love and wanted to propose on the spot.
Soon they were ushered into the assembly hall, where the king was still in council. Aladdin’s mother bowed and said, “Your Majesty, here is the princess’s marriage price. My son says that he is honored to present you with what you requested, and that the princess is worth a million times more than this.”
After she had finished, the forty slaves put down the golden bowls, and the forty slave girls took off the cloths that covered the bowls.
The king was dumbstruck. He was so astonished by the beauty of the slave girls, the majesty of the slaves, and the size and brilliance of the jewels that he was unable to speak for five minutes. Finally he turned to the prime minister and said, “Well, what do you think now? Is such a man worthy enough to marry my daughter?”
The prime minister bowed and was silent.
“Tell your son,” the king said to Aladdin’s mother, “that he may claim my daughter this very night. Tonight he and Princess Laila will be married.”
After Aladdin’s mother left, the king led the procession to the princess’s chambers. Princess Laila was as dazzled by the magnificence of Aladdin’s present as the king had been. What kind of man am I marrying? she thought. Certainly he is wealthy and generous beyond imagination. I hope that he is kind as well.
