When the sultan's porters came to open the gates the next morning, they were amazed to find what had been an unoccupied garden filled with a magnificent palace. They ran with the strange tidings to the grand vizier, who hastened to the sultan.
"It must be the palace," said the sultan, "which I gave Aladdin permission to build for my daughter. He has wished to let us see what wonders can be done in a single night."
In the meantime Aladdin had sent his mother to the Princess Buddir al Buddoor to tell her that the palace would be ready for her reception in the evening. While the mother, attended by her women slaves, was in the apartments of the princess, the sultan himself came in and was surprised to find the woman whom he had seen in such humble guise at his divan, now more richly appareled than his own daughter. Aladdin, too, rose in the opinion of the monarch, because the young man had shared his wealth and honors with his mother.
Shortly after his mother's departure, Aladdin mounted his horse, and attended by his magnificent retinue, left the paternal home forever. With him he took, you may be sure, the wonderful lamp to which he owed all his good fortune, and the ring which had been given him as a talisman.
That night the sultan entertained Aladdin with the greatest magnificence, and at the conclusion of the marriage ceremony the princess took leave of her father. Bands of music, followed by a hundred stately ushers and a hundred black mutes in two files, with their officers at their head, led the procession. Four hundred of the sultan's young pages carried torches on each side, which together with the illumination of the two palaces made the night as light as day.
Thus the princess, accompanied also by Aladdin's mother, walked along the carpet which was spread to the palace of her husband. There Aladdin was ready to receive her, and to lead her into a large hall lighted with an infinite number of wax candles.
A feast consisting of the most delicate viands was then served upon dishes of massy gold. Plates, basins, goblets, were all of the most exquisite workmanship.
The princess, dazzled by such brilliancy, said to Aladdin, "I thought, prince, that nothing in the world was so beautiful as my father's palace; but the sight of this hall shows me how much I was deceived."
The next morning Aladdin's attendants brought him another habit, as rich and magnificent as that worn the day before. He then ordered one of the horses to be got ready for him; mounted it, and went, in the midst of a large body of slaves, to invite the sultan and the lords of his court to attend a banquet. To this the sultan gave immediate consent, and rising at once, accompanied Aladdin to his palace. Every step of the way the sultan's admiration increased; but when he entered the hall and saw the windows enriched with such large and perfect diamonds, rubies and emeralds, he was more than ever astonished.
"This palace is one of the wonders of the world, my son; but what most surprises me is that one of the windows of this magnificent hall should be left incomplete and unfinished."