gold, full of jewels, such as she [FN#426] brought thee the other day, [FN#427] and forty slave-girls to bear the dishes and forty black slaves.”  “By Allah, O Vizier,” rejoined the Sultan, “’thou speakest rightly; for that this is a thing to which he may not avail and so we shall be rid of him by [fair] means.” [FN#428] So he said to Alaeddin’s mother, “Go and tell thy son that I abide by the promise which I made him, but an if he avail unto my daughter’s dowry; to wit, I require of him forty dishes of pure gold, which must all be full of jewels [such as] thou broughtest me [erst], together with forty slave-girls to carry them and forty male slaves to escort and attend them.  If, then; thy son avail unto this, I will marry him to my daughter.”

Alaeddin’s mother returned home, shaking her head and saying, “Whence shall my poor son get these dishes of jewels?  Supposing, for the jewels and the dishes, that he return to the treasure and gather the whole from the trees,—­and withal methinketh not it is possible to him; but say that he fetch them,—­whence [shall he get] the slaves and slave-girls?” And she gave not over talking to herself till she reached the house, where Alaeddin awaited her, and when she came in to him, she said to him, “O my son, said I not to thee, ’Think not to attain to the Lady Bedrulbudour’?  Indeed, this is a thing that is not possible unto folk like ourselves.”  Quoth he, “Tell me what is the news.”  And she said to him, “O my son, the Sultan received me with all courtesy, according to his wont, and meseemeth he meant fairly by us, but [for] thine accursed enemy the Vizier; for that, after I had bespoken the Sultan in thy name, even as thou badest me, reminding him that the term for which he had appointed us was past and saying to him, ’If Thy Grace would vouchsafe to give commandment for the marriage of thy daughter the Lady Bedrulbudour with my son Alaeddin,’—­he turned to the Vizier and spoke to him.  The Vizier replied to him in a whisper and after that the Sultan returned me an answer.”  Then she told him what the Sultan required of him and added, “O my son, he would fain have present answer of thee; but methinketh we have no answer to give him.”

When [FN#429] Alaeddin heard his mother’s speech, he laughed and said, “O my mother, thou sayest we have no answer to make him and deemest the thing exceeding hard; but now be good enough to rise [FN#430] and fetch us somewhat to eat, and after we have dined, thou shalt (an it please the Compassionate) see the answer.  The Sultan like thyself, thinketh he hath sought of me an extraordinary matter, so he may divert me from the Lady Bedrulbudour; but the fact is that he seeketh a thing less than I had looked for.  But go now and buy us somewhat we may eat and leave me to fetch thee the answer.”  Accordingly, she arose and went out to buy her need from the market, so she might make ready the morning-meal; whilst Alaeddin entered his chamber and taking the lamp, rubbed it.