As soon as Aladdin's mother had retired, the sultan put an end to the audience; and rising from his throne ordered that the princess's attendants should come and carry the trays into their mistress's apartment, whither he went himself to examine them with her at his leisure. The fourscore slaves were conducted into the palace; and the sultan, telling the princess of their magnificent apparel, ordered them to be brought before her apartment, that she might see through the lattices he had not exaggerated in his account of them.

In the meantime Aladdin's mother reached home, and showed in her air and countenance the good news she brought to her son.

"My son," said she, "you may rejoice, for you are arrived at the height of your desires. The sultan has declared that you shall marry the Princess Buddir al Buddoor. He waits for you with impatience."

Aladdin, delighted with this news, said little, but hurried into his chamber. Here he rubbed his lamp, and the obedient genie appeared.

"Genie," said Aladdin, "convey me at once to a bath, and supply me with the richest and most magnificent robe ever worn by a monarch."

No sooner were the words out of his mouth than the genie, making Aladdin as well as himself invisible, took the latter into an elegant marble bath, where the youth was well rubbed and washed with scented waters. When he came out from the bath, his skin was as clear as that of a child, and his body lightsome and free.

When the bath was finished, Aladdin found before him a robe, the magnificence of which astonished him. By the genie's aid he put on the robe, and was returned to his chamber.

"Have you any further command?" asked the genie.

"Yes," answered Aladdin, "bring me a charger that surpasses in goodness and beauty the best in the sultan's stable. Give him a rich saddle and bridle, and other caparisons to correspond with his value. Furnish me with twenty slaves, as richly clothed as those who carried the present to the sultan, to walk by my side and to follow me, and twenty more to go before me in two ranks. Bring my mother six women slaves to attend her, all dressed as richly as any slave of the Princess Buddir al Buddoor, each slave carrying a complete dress fit for any sultaness. I want also ten thousand pieces of gold in ten purses; go, and make haste."

The genie executed all these difficult commands in a moment. Then Aladdin, taking the women slaves, each carrying on her head a beautiful dress wrapped in a piece of silver tissue, presented them to his mother, saying that the dresses were brought for her use. Of the ten purses, Aladdin gave his mother four. The other six he left in the hands of the slaves who brought them, telling them to throw the money by handfuls among the people as the procession went to the sultan's palace.