Aladdin and the Magic Lamp
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Everything is fine for several years for Princess Badrou'l-Boudour, Aladdin, and his mother. The sultan is happy with his son-in-law and the sultana and the grand-vizier do not interfere with Aladdin's life.
Then, the Maghrebi, who returned to North Africa, learned by divination that Aladdin is not dead as he thought, but very much alive and in possession of the magic lamp. He will probably try to recover the lamp. And if he succeeds, what will happen to the happy couple?
ON THE THIRTY-SECOND NIGHT
Sheherazade said:
And the sultan kissed Aladdin between the two eyes and said to him: “Ah! my son Aladdin, the more I know you, the more I find you admirable!" And he sent for the grand-vizier, and pointed out to him the marvel that exalted him, and said to him, in an ironic tone: “Well! vizier, now what do you think?" And the Vizier, not forgetting his old resentment, was more and more persuaded, on seeing the thing, that Aladdin was a wizard, a heretic, and an alchemist-philosopher. But he was careful not to reveal any of his thoughts to the sultan, whom he knew was very attached to his new son-in-law, and, without entering into a dispute with him, he left him in his wonder and contented himself with replying: "Allah is the greatest!"
Now, since that day, the sultan did not fail to come and spend a few hours each evening, after diwan, in the company of his son-in-law Aladdin and his daughter Badrou'l-Boudour, to contemplate the marvels of the palace, where, each time, he found new things, more admirable than the previous ones, and which filled him with wonder.
As for Aladdin, far from allowing himself to be puffed up or softened by his new life, he took care to devote himself, during the hours he did not spend with his wife Badrou'l-Boudour, to doing good around him and to find out about poor people, to relieve them. For he did not forget his former condition and the misery in which he had lived, with his mother, during the years of his childhood. And, moreover, each time he went out on horseback, he had himself escorted by a few slaves who, according to his orders, did not fail to throw handfuls of gold dinars to the crowd all along the way. And every day, after the midday meal and the evening meal, he distributed to the poor the leftovers from his table, which were enough to feed more than five thousand people. Also, his generous conduct and his kindness, and modesty won him the affection of all the people and drew to him the blessings of all the inhabitants. And there was not one who did not swear by his name and by his life. But what ended up winning his hearts and putting the height of his fame was a great victory that he won over the tribes in revolt against the sultan, in which he had shown marvelous courage and warlike qualities, similar to the exploits of the most famous heroes. And Badrou'l-Boudour loved him all the better for it and congratulated herself more and more on her happy destiny which had given her as husband the only man who really deserved her. And Aladdin lived in this way for several years of perfect happiness, between his wife and his mother, surrounded by the affection and devotion of adults and children, and more loved and more respected than the sultan himself who, moreover, continued to hold him in high esteem and to have unlimited admiration for him. And that's it for Aladdin!
As for the Maghrebi magician, who had been at the origin of all these events and who, unwittingly, had been the initial cause of Aladdin's fortune, here it is!
When he had left Aladdin in the underground, to make him die of thirst and hunger, he returned to his country, to the depths of the distant Maghreb. And he spent all this time saddened by the bad turn of his expedition and in regretting the pains and fatigues he had given himself so vainly to conquer the magic lamp. And he thought of the fate that had taken from his lips the mouthful he had taken so much care to make. And not a day went by that the bitter memory of these things didn't come to his mind and made him curse Aladdin and the time he had met Aladdin. And he ended up, one day when he was more than usually full of this tenacious resentment, having the curiosity to know the details of Aladdin's death. And, for this purpose, as he was well versed in geomancy, he took his table of divinatory sand, which he took from the bottom of a cupboard, sat down on a square mat, in the middle of a circle traced in red, leveled the sand, arranged the male points and the female points, the mothers and the children, muttered the geomantic formulas, and said: “Look, O sand, look! What happened to the magic lamp? And how did he die, this son of a bitch, this rascal called Aladdin? And, pronouncing these words, he stirred the sand according to the rite. And here the figures were born and the horoscope was formed. And the Maghrebi, bordering on amazement, discovered, without a doubt for a moment, after a detailed examination of the figures of the horoscope, that Aladdin was not dead but very much alive, that he was the master of the magic lamp, and that he was in splendor, riches, and honors, married to Princess Badrou'l-Budour, daughter of the King of China, whom he loved and who loved him, and that finally, he was known, throughout the empire of China and to the borders of the world, only under the name of the emir Aladdin!
When the magician had learned, by the operations of his geomancy, of these things which he was so far from expecting, he foamed with rage and spat in the air and on the ground, saying: "I spit on your face, O son of bastards and rags! I piss on your head, O Aladdin the pimp, O dog, son of a dog, O hanged bird, O face of pitch and tar...
— At this point in her narration, Scheherazade saw the morning appear and quietly fell silent.
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