dishes which they bore on their heads and on which they might not open their eyes, [FN#433] for the excess of their flashing and radiance.  Then the guards [FN#434] entered and told the Sultan, who bade bring them before him forthright into the Divan.  So Alaeddin’s mother entered with them and when they came before the Sultan, they all did obeisance to him with the utmost courtliness and gravity and invoked on him glory and prosperity; then, raising the dishes from their heads, they set them down before him and stood with their hands clasped behind them, after they had removed the covers.

The Sultan wondered with an exceeding wonderment and was confounded at the beauty of the girls and their loveliness, which overpassed description; his wit was bewildered, when he saw the golden dishes, full of jewels that dazzled the sight, and he was amazed at this marvel, so that he became as one dumb, unable to speak aught, of the excess of his wonderment; nay, his wit was the more perplexed, forasmuch as this had all been accomplished in an hour’s time.  Then he bade carry the slave-girls and their burdens to the pavilion of the Lady Bedrulbudour; so the damsels took up the dishes and entered; whereupon Alaeddin’s mother came forward and said to the Sultan, “O my lord, this is no great matter for the Lady Bedrulbudour’s exalted rank; nay, she deserveth manifold this.”  So the Sultan turned to the Vizier and said to him, “How sayst thou, O Vizier?  He that can in so short a time avail unto riches like these, is he not worthy to be the Sultan’s son-in-law and to have his daughter to bride?” Now the Vizier marvelled at the greatness of these riches yet more than the Sultan, but envy was killing him and waxed on him more and more, when he saw that the Sultan was content with the bride-gift [FN#435] and the dowry; withal he could not gainstand the [manifest] truth and say to the Sultan, “He is not worthy;” so he cast about to work upon him by practice, that he might hinder him from giving his daughter the Lady Bedrulbudour to Alaeddin, and accordingly said to him, [FN#436] “O my lord, all the treasures of the world were not worth a paring of thy daughter Bedrulbudour’s nails; indeed, Thy Highness overrateth this upon her.” [FN#437]

When [FN#438] the Sultan heard the Vizier’s words, he knew that this his speech arose from the excess of his envy; so he turned to Alaeddin’s mother and said to her, “O woman, go to thy son and tell him that I accept of him the marriage-gift and abide by my promise to him and that my daughter is his bride and he my son-in-law; so bid him come hither, that I may make acquaintance with him.  There shall betide him from me nought but all honour and consideration and this night shall be the beginning of the bridal festivities.  But, as I said to thee, let him come hither to me without delay.”  So she returned home swiftlier than the wind, [FN#439] of her haste to bring her son the good news; and she was like to fly for joy at the thought that her son