Aladdin’s mother, seeing the sultan rise and retire, and all the people go away, judged rightly that he would not come again that day, and resolved to go home. When Aladdin saw her return with the present designed for the sultan, he knew not at first what to think of her success, and in the fear he was in lest she should bring him some ill news, he had not courage enough to ask her any questions, till his mother, who had never set foot into the sultan’s palace before, and knew not what was every day practised there, freed him from his embarrassment, and said to him, with a great deal of simplicity, “Son, I have seen the sultan, and am very well persuaded he has seen me too; for I placed myself just before him, and nothing could hinder him from seeing me; but he was so much taken up with all those who talked on all sides of him, that I pitied him, and wondered at his patience in hearing them. At last I believe he was heartily tired, for he rose up suddenly, and would not hear a great many who were ready prepared to speak to him, but went away, at which I was very well pleased, for indeed I began to lose all patience, and was extremely tired with staying so long. But there is no harm done: I will go again to-morrow; perhaps the sultan may not be so busy.”
Though Aladdin’s passion was very violent, he was forced to be satisfied with this excuse, and to fortify himself with patience. He had at least the satisfaction to find that his mother had got over the greatest difficulty, which was to procure access to the sultan, and hoped that the example of those she saw speak to him would embolden her to acquit herself better of her commission when a favourable opportunity offered to speak to him.
The next morning she went to the sultan’s palace with the present, as early as the day before; but when she came there, she found the gates of the divan shut, and understood that the council sat but every other day, therefore she must come again the next. This news she carried to her son, whose only relief was to guard himself with patience. She went six times afterwards on the day appointed, placed herself always directly before the sultan, but with as little success as the first time, and might have perhaps come a thousand times to as little purpose, if the sultan himself had not taken a particular notice of her: for it is very probable that only those who came with petitions approached the sultan, and each pleaded their cause in its turn, and Aladdin’s mother was not one of them.
That day at last, after the council was broke up, when the sultan was returned to his own apartment, he said to his grand vizier, “I have for some time observed a certain woman, who comes constantly every day that I go into council, and has something wrapped up in a napkin: she always stands up from the beginning to the breaking up of the council, and affects to place her self just before me. Do you know what she wants?”
“Sir,” replied the grand vizier, who knew no more than the sultan what she wanted, but had not a mind to seem uninformed, “your majesty knows that women often form complaints on trifles; perhaps this woman may come to complain to your majesty, that somebody has sold her some bad flour, or some such trifling matter.” The sultan was not satisfied with this answer, but replied, “If this woman comes again next council-day, do not fail to call her, that I may hear what she has to say.” The grand vizier, made answer by kissing his hand, and lifting it up above his head, signifying his willingness to lose it if he failed.
By this time, Aladdin’s mother was so much used to go to the council, and stand before the sultan, that she did not think it any trouble, if she could but satisfy her son that she neglected nothing that lay in her power to please him; so the next council-day she went to the divan, and placed herself before the sultan as usual; and before the grand vizier had made his report of business, the sultan perceived her, and compassionating her for having waited so long, he said to the vizier, “Before you enter upon any business, remember the woman I spoke to you about; bid her come near, and let us hear and dispatch her business first.” The grand vizier immediately called the chief of the officers, who stood ready to obey his commands; and pointing to her, bid him go to that woman and tell her to come before the sultan.
The chief of the officers went to Aladdin’s mother, and, at a sign he gave her, she followed him to the foot of the sultan’s throne, where he left her, and retired to his place by the grand vizier. Aladdin’s mother, by the example of a great many others whom she saw salute the sultan, bowed her head down to the carpet which covered the steps of the throne, and remained in that posture till the sultan bid her rise, which she had no sooner done, than the sultan said to her, “Good woman, I have observed you to stand a long time, from the beginning to the rising of the divan; what business brings you here?”
At these words, Aladdin’s mother prostrated herself a second time; and when she got up again, said, “Monarch of monarchs, before I tell your majesty the extraordinary and almost incredible business which brings me before your high throne, I beg of you to pardon the boldness or rather the impudence of the demand I am going to make, which is so uncommon, that I tremble, and am ashamed to propose it to my sultan.” In order to give her the more freedom to explain herself, the sultan ordered everybody to go out of the divan but the grand vizier, and then told her that she might speak without restraint.
Aladdin’s mother, not content with this favour of the sultan’s to save her the trouble and confusion of speaking before so many people, was notwithstanding for securing herself against his anger, which, from the proposal she was going to make, she was not a little apprehensive of; therefore resuming her discourse, she said, “I beg of your majesty, if you should think my demand the least injurious or offensive, to assure me first of your pardon and forgiveness.” “Well,” replied the sultan, “I will forgive you, be it what it will, and no hurt shall come to you: speak boldly.”
When Aladdin’s mother had taken all these precautions, for fear of the sultan’s anger, she told him faithfully how Aladdin had seen the princess Badroul-boudour, the violent love that fatal sight had inspired him with, the declaration he had made to her of it when he came home, and what representations she had made to dissuade him from “a passion no less injurious,” said she, “to your majesty, as sultan, than to the princess your daughter. But,” continued she, “my son, instead of taking my advice and reflecting on his boldness, was so obstinate as to persevere in it, and to threaten me with some desperate act, if I refused to come and ask the princess in marriage of your majesty; and it was not till after an extreme violence on myself, I was forced to have this complaisance for him, for which I beg your majesty once more to pardon not only me, but forgive Aladdin my son, for entertaining such a rash thought as to aspire to so high an alliance.”