The Arabian Nights II (28 page)

The king went directly to the unfinished window, and when he saw that it was like the others, he thought that he was mistaken. So he examined not only the two windows on each side, but also all the other windows, one by one, and when he was convinced that the shutters, on which many workmen had spent so much time, were finished, in such a short time, he embraced 'Ala al-Din and kissed him between the eyes, saying in amazement, “Son, what a man you are to do such surprising things in the twinkling of an eye! There is no one like you in the whole world, and the more I know you, the more I admire you.” 'Ala al-Din received the praises and acclamations of the king with a great deal of modesty and replied, “My lord, it is a great honor for me
to merit your majesty's good will and approbation, and I assure you that I will do all I can to deserve them more and more.”

The king returned to his palace, as he came, without letting 'Ala al-Din go with him. When he arrived, he found the grand vizier waiting for him, and he described to him, still full of admiration, the wonder he had just seen, in terms that left the grand vizier no doubt that the thing was indeed as the king had described it, although he was more confirmed in his belief that 'Ala al-Din's palace was nothing but the effect of enchantment, as he had told the king, the first moment he laid eyes on it. He started to repeat the same thing, but the king interrupted him, saying, “Vizier, you told me so once before, but I see that you have not yet forgotten my daughter's marriage to your son.” The grand vizier, seeing clearly that the king was biased, and not wishing to enter any disputes with him, left him to his opinion. Meanwhile the king, as soon as he got up in the morning, went regularly to a room from which he could see the entire palace of 'Ala al-Din, and he used to go there many times during the day to contemplate it and admire it.

In the meantime, 'Ala al-Din did not confine himself to his palace. He took care to show himself in town, several times a week, by going to pray sometimes in one mosque, sometimes in another, or by paying a visit from time to time to the grand vizier, who affected to pay his respects to him on certain days, or by doing the principal lords of the court, whom he often entertained in his palace, the honor to return their visits. Every time he went out, he ordered two of the slaves who walked, surrounding his horse, to throw handfuls of money in the streets and the squares through which he passed and to which a great crowd of people always flocked. Besides, no poor man came to his palace gate without returning satisfied with the generosity he received by 'Ala al-Din's orders. As 'Ala al-Din divided his time in such a way that he went hunting at least once a week, sometimes in the vicinity of the city, sometimes farther off, he also exercised his generosity on the roads and in the villages. This generous disposition earned him a thousand blessings from the people, and it was common for them to swear by his head. In short, without offending the king, to whom he paid his respects very regularly, one may say that 'Ala al-Din, by his affable manner and his generosity, won the affection of the people and that in general he was more beloved than the king himself. In addition to all these fine qualities, he showed such courage and zeal for the good of the nation that one could not praise him well enough. He manifested both qualities when a rebellion broke out near the borders of the kingdom, for no sooner had he learned that the king was levying an army to quell the rebellion than he begged the king to put him in charge, which he had no difficulty in obtaining. As soon as he was the head of the army, he marched against the rebels, so expeditiously that the king
heard of the defeat, punishment, and dispersal of the rebels before he heard of 'Ala al-Din's arrival in the army. But although this success made his name famous throughout the kingdom, it did not alter his disposition, for he was as affable after his victory as before.

'Ala al-Din had been living in this manner for several years, when the African magician, who had unintentionally given him the means of raising himself to a high fortune, thought of him in Africa, where he had returned. Although he was till then convinced that 'Ala al-Din had died miserably in the subterranean place where he had left him, it came to his mind to find out precisely how he had died. As he was a great geomancer, he took out of a cupboard a covered square box, which he used in his geomantic observations. He sat on the sofa, set the box before him, and uncovered it. After he prepared and leveled the sand, with the intention of discovering how 'Ala al-Din had died in the subterranean place, he cast the points, drew the figures, and formed the horoscope. But when he examined it, he discovered that, instead of being dead in the subterranean place, 'Ala al-Din was out of it and was living in great splendor, being extremely rich, married to a princess, and respected and honored.

The African magician had no sooner found out by the rules of his diabolic art that 'Ala al-Din had arrived at this high fortune than his face burned red with rage, and he said to himself, “This miserable son of a tailor has discovered the secret and power of the lamp. I believed that his death was certain, yet here he is, enjoying the fruits of my labor and study. But I will prevent him from enjoying it much longer, or perish.” He did not take long in deliberating on what action to take. So the next morning, he mounted a Barbary horse he had in his stable and set out on his journey, traveling from city to city and from province to province, without stopping, except to rest his horse, until he reached China and, soon after, the capital of the king whose daughter 'Ala al-Din had married. He took up lodgings in an inn and remained there the rest of the day and the night to rest from the fatigue of his journey.

The next morning, the first thing he did was to find out what people said of 'Ala al-Din, and, taking a walk through the town, he went into the best known and most frequented place, where people of distinction met to drink a certain kind of warm liquor, which he had drunk when he was there before. As soon as he sat down, a glass of it was poured and presented to him. He took it, listening to the conversation of people on each side, and heard them talking of 'Ala al-Din's palace. When he finished his drink, he approached one of them and took the opportunity to ask him specifically what was that palace of which they spoke so well. The man said, “From where do you come? You must have newly arrived, not to have seen or heard talk of Prince 'Ala al-Din's
palace.” (He was called by no other title, ever since he married Princess Badr al-Budur.) He continued, “I will not say to you that it is one of the wonders of the world, but that it is the only wonder of the world, for nothing so rich, so grand, and so magnificent has ever been seen. You must have come from very far, not to have heard talk of it. Indeed, it must have been talked of all over the world, ever since it was built. See it, and judge for yourself whether I have not told you the truth.” The African magician replied, “Forgive my ignorance. I arrived here only yesterday, and I did indeed come from very far, in fact the farthest part of Africa, which the fame of this palace had not yet reached when I left. For in view of the urgent business that brought me here, my sole aim was to get here as soon as possible, without stopping anywhere or making any acquaintances, and therefore I did not learn about it until you told me. But I will not fail to go and see it. My impatience to do so is so great that I am eager to satisfy my curiosity immediately, if you will do me the favor to show me the way to it.”

The man was pleased to show him the way he must take to have a view of 'Ala al-Din's palace, and the African magician got up and left instantly. When he arrived and examined the palace closely, on all sides, he had no doubt that 'Ala al-Din had made use of the lamp to build it. Without dwelling on the inability of 'Ala al-Din, the son of a simple tailor, he knew that only the demons, the slaves of the lamp, the possession of which had eluded him, could have performed such wonders. Pierced to the quick at 'Ala al-Din's happiness and greatness, which he could hardly distinguish from those of the king, he returned to the inn where he lodged.

The question was to find out where the lamp was and whether 'Ala al-Din carried it with him, or whether he kept it somewhere else, and this he had to discover by an operation of geomancy. As soon as he entered his lodging, he took his square box and his sand, which he carried along with him whenever he traveled, and after he performed the operation, he discovered that the lamp was inside 'Ala al-Din's palace, and his joy was so great at this discovery that he was beside himself and said, “I will have the lamp, and I defy 'Ala al-Din to stop me from taking it from him and making him sink to his original meanness, from which he has taken such a high flight.”

It was 'Ala al-Din's misfortune that at that time he had gone hunting for eight days, of which only three had expired, and the African magician found out about it by the following means. After he performed the operation that gave him so much joy, he went to the inn's caretaker, on the pretext of having a chat with him, and the caretaker, who liked to talk, did not need much prodding. The magician then
told him that he had seen 'Ala al-Din's palace, and, after describing to him, with exaggeration, the features that had seemed the most amazing and most striking to him and all the world, he added, “But my curiosity goes beyond all this, and I will not be satisfied until I see the person to whom this wonderful edifice belongs.” The caretaker replied, “That will not be difficult. There is hardly any day, when he is in town, on which he does not give the opportunity, but he has been outside the city on a long hunting trip, which will last five more days.”

The African magician did not wish to inquire any further. He took leave of the caretaker and, returning to his room, said to himself, “This is the time to act, and I should not let this opportunity slip by.” He went to the shop of a maker and seller of lamps and said to him, “Master, I need a dozen copper lamps; can you supply me with them?” The lamp seller told him that he did not have enough, but that if he waited till the next day, he would have them any time he wished. The magician consented and asked that they should be clean and polished, and, after promising that he would pay him well, he returned to the inn.

The next day, the magician received the twelve lamps and paid the man the asking price, without haggling. He put them in a basket that he had brought for that purpose, and, with the basket hanging on his arm, headed to 'Ala al-Din's palace and began to cry out, “Who would like to exchange old lamps for new ones?” As he came nearer, the children, who were playing in the square and who heard him from a distance, rushed to surround him and jeer at him, thinking him to be a madman, and the passersby laughed at what they considered to be his folly, saying, “He must have lost his mind to offer new lamps for old ones.” But he was not taken aback by the jeers of the children or by what was said about him, and in order to promote his merchandise, he continued to cry out, “Who would like to exchange old lamps for new ones?” He repeated this so often, walking back and forth in the square, in front of the palace and around it, that Princess Badr al-Budur, who was at that time in the hall with the twenty-four windows, hearing a man cry something, but being unable to distinguish his words because of the jeers of the children who followed him and who kept increasing in number, sent down one of her slave-girls, who went close to him to find out what that noise was.

The slave-girl soon returned, and went into the hall with a loud burst of laughter, and she kept laughing so heartily that the princess could not prevent herself from laughing when she saw her. She asked her, “Well, foolish one, will you tell me what you are laughing at?” The slave-girl replied, still laughing, “Princess, who can prevent himself from laughing to see a madman, with a basket on his arm, full of
fine new lamps, asking, not to sell them, but to exchange them for old ones? The children have surrounded him so closely that he can hardly move, and it is their cries of mockery at him that you hear.”

Hearing this, another slave-girl said, “Speaking of old lamps, I don't know whether the princess has observed that there is an old one on the cornice, and whoever owns it will not be sorry to find a new one in its place. If the princess wishes, she may have the pleasure to try whether this fool is indeed foolish enough to exchange a new lamp for an old one, without taking anything for it.” The lamp of which the slave girl spoke was the magic lamp that 'Ala al-Din had made use of to raise himself to a high position. He himself had put it on the cornice, before he went hunting, for fear of losing it, a precaution he always took on such occasions. But neither the slave-girls, the eunuchs, nor the princess herself had ever noticed it during his absence. When he was not on a hunting trip, he always carried it with him. One may say that the precaution 'Ala al-Din took was all right, but he should have at least locked up the lamp. This is true, but other people have made similar mistakes before and will continue to make them to the end of time.

Princess Badr al-Budur, who was not aware of the great value of the lamp and of 'Ala al-Din's great interest, not to speak of her own, in keeping it safe from everyone, joined the pleasantry and bid a eunuch to take it and make the exchange. The eunuch obeyed, went down, and, as soon as he was outside the palace gate, saw the African magician and called to him. When he came, the eunuch showed him the old lamp, saying, “Give me a new lamp in exchange for this.” The African magician had no doubt that this was the lamp he wanted. There could not have been any others like it in the palace, where all the utensils were either gold or silver. He snatched it from the eunuch's hand, and, after thrusting it as far as he could in his breast, offered him his basket and told him to choose whichever lamp he pleased. The eunuch chose one, left the magician, and carried the new lamp to Princess Badr al-Budur. The exchange was no sooner made than the square rang again with the cries of the children, who shouted even louder than before, mocking what they thought to be his folly.