The magician, who thought it too violent, asked the sultan leave to speak, which being granted, she said, 'Sir, I am persuaded that the zeal of your councillors for your majesty's interest makes them propose arresting Prince Ahmed: but they will not take it amiss if I suggest to your and their consideration, that if you arrest the prince, you must also detain his retinue. But they are all genies. Do they think it will be so easy to surprise, seize, and secure their persons? Will they not disappear, by the property they possess of rendering themselves invisible, and transport themselves instantly to the fairy, and give her an account of the insult offered to her husband? And can it be supposed she will let it go unrevenged? But it would be better, if, by any other means which might not make so great a noise, the sultan could secure himself against any ill designs Prince Ahmed may have against him, and not involve his majesty's honour. If his majesty has any confidence in my advice, as genies and fairies can do things impracticable to men, he will touch Prince Ahmed's honour, and engage him, by means of the fairy, to procure certain advantages. For example, every time your majesty takes the field you are obliged to go to a great expense, not only in pavilions and tents for yourself and army, but likewise in mules and camels, and other beasts of burden, to carry their baggage. Might you not request him to use his interest with the fairy to procure you a tent which might be carried in a man's hand, and which should be large enough to shelter your whole army?
'I need say no more to your majesty. If the prince brings such a tent, you may make a great many other demands of the same nature, so that at last he may sink under the difficulties and the impossibility of executing them, however fertile in invention the fairy who has enticed him from you by her enchantments may be; so that in time he will be ashamed to appear, and will be forced to pass the rest of his life with his fairy, excluded from any connection with this world; and then your majesty will have nothing to fear, and cannot be reproached with so detestable an action as the shedding of a son's blood, or confining him in a prison for life.'
When the magician had finished her speech, the sultan asked his favourites if they had anything better to propose; and finding them all silent, determined to follow the magician's advice, as the most reasonable and the most suited to his mild manner of government.
The next day, when the prince came into his father's presence and had sat down by him, after a conversation on different subjects, the sultan said, 'Son, when you came and dispelled those clouds of melancholy which your long absence had brought upon me, you made the place you had chosen for your retreat a mystery to me. I was satisfied with seeing you again, and knowing that you were content with your condition, without wishing to penetrate into your secret, which I found you did not care I should. I know not what reason you had thus to treat a father. I know your good fortune; I rejoice with you, and very much approve of your conduct in marrying a fairy so worthy of your love, and so rich and powerful, as I am informed. Powerful as I am, it was not possible for me to have procured so great a match for you. Now that you are raised to so high a rank as to be envied by everybody but a father like me, I not only desire you to preserve the good understanding we have lived in hitherto, but to use all your credit with your fairy to obtain for me her assistance when I want it. I therefore will make a trial this day.
'I am persuaded you could easily procure from her a pavilion that might be carried in a man's hand, yet which would extend over my whole army; especially when you let her know it is for me. Though it may be a difficult thing, she will not refuse you. All the world knows that fairies are capable of doing the most extraordinary things.'
Prince Ahmed never expected that the sultan his father would have asked a thing which, at first sight, appeared to him so difficult, not to say impossible. Though he knew not absolutely how great the power of genies and fairies was, he doubted whether it extended so far as to furnish a tent such as his father desired. Moreover, he had never asked anything like it of the fairy Pari Banou, but was satisfied with her continual kindness; therefore he was in the greatest embarrassment what answer to make. At last he replied, 'If, sir, I have concealed from your majesty what happened to me and what course I took after finding my arrow, the reason was that I thought it was of no great importance to you to be informed of them; and though I know not how this mystery has been revealed to you, I cannot deny that your information is correct. I have married the fairy you speak of. I love her, and am persuaded she loves me. But I can say nothing as to the influence your majesty believes I have over her. It is what I have not yet made any experiment of or thought of, and should be very glad if you would dispense with my undertaking it, and let me enjoy the happiness of loving and being beloved with all the disinterestedness I proposed to myself. But the demand of a father is a command upon every child who, like me, thinks it his duty to obey him in everything. And though it is with the greatest reluctance imaginable, I will not fail to ask my wife the favour your majesty desires, but will not promise to obtain it; and if I should not have the honour to come again to pay you my respects, that shall be the sign that I have not had success: but I desire you to forgive me beforehand, and consider that you yourself have reduced me to this extremity.'
'Son,' replied the Sultan of the Indies, 'I should be very sorry that what I ask of you should prevent my ever seeing you again. Go, only ask her. Think with yourself, that as you love her, you could refuse her nothing; therefore, if she loves you, she will not deny your request.'
All this discourse of the Sultan of the Indies could not persuade Prince Ahmed, who would rather he had asked anything than the risk of displeasing his dear Pari Banou; and so great was his vexation, that he left the court two days sooner than usual.
When he returned, the fairy, to whom he had always before appeared with a cheerful countenance, asked him the reason of the alteration; and finding that instead of answering her, he inquired after her health to avoid satisfying her, she said to him, 'I will answer your question when you have answered mine.' The prince declined it a long time, protesting that nothing was the matter with him; but the more he denied it, the more she pressed him, and said, 'I cannot bear to see you in this condition: tell me what makes you so uneasy, that I may remove the cause of it, whatever it may be; for it must be very extraordinary if it is out of my power.'
Prince Ahmed could not long withstand the fairy. 'Madam,' said he, 'God prolong the sultan my father's life, and bless him to the end of his days. I left him alive, and in perfect health: therefore that is not the cause of the melancholy you perceive in me. The sultan has imposed upon me the disagreeable task of worrying you. You know the care I have taken, with your approbation, to conceal from him my happiness at home with you. How he has been informed of it I cannot tell.'