Afterward the princess would have brought him back into the great hall to dine with her, but he, knowing he would have to show his face, which he had all this time concealed under Fatima's veil, begged her to excuse him, saying that he never ate anything but bread and dried fruits, and desiring to eat that slightest repast in his own apartment.
"You are as free here, good mother, as if you were in your own cell. I will order you a dinner, but remember, I expect you as soon as you have finished."
After the princess had dined, the false Fatima was again brought before her.
"My good mother," said the princess, "I am overjoyed to have so holy a woman as yourself confer, by your presence, a blessing upon this palace. Now that I am speaking of the palace, pray how do you like it? Tell me first what you think of this hall."
The counterfeit Fatima, surveying the palace from one end to the other, said: "As far as such a solitary being as myself, who am unacquainted with what the world calls beautiful, can judge, this hall is truly admirable; there wants but one thing."
"What is that, good mother?" demanded the princess. "Tell me, I conjure you. I have always believed and heard that it lacked nothing, but if it does, the want shall be supplied."
"Princess," said the false Fatima with great dissimulation, "forgive the liberty I take, but in my opinion, if it is of any importance, if a roc's egg were hung up in the middle of the dome, this hall would have no parallel in the four quarters of the world, and would be the wonder of the universe."
"My good mother," said the princess, "what is a roc, and where may one get an egg?"
"Princess, it is a bird of prodigious size that lives on Mount
Caucasus; the architect who built your palace can get you one."
After the princess had thanked the false Fatima for what she believed her good advice, she conversed upon other matters, but she could not forget the roc's egg, and that evening when she met Aladdin, she almost immediately addressed him.