The sultan, though he was very well persuaded that it was not possible for the vizier to provide so considerable a present for his son to make the princess, yet he hearkened to him, and granted him that favour. So turning about to Aladdin’s mother, he said to her, “Good woman, go home, and tell your son that I agree to the proposal you have made me; but I cannot marry the princess my daughter till some furniture I design for her be got ready, which cannot be finished these three months; but at the expiration of that time come again.”
Aladdin’s mother returned home much more overjoyed than she could have imagined, for she looked upon her access to the sultan as a thing impossible; and besides, she had met with a favourable answer instead of the refusal and confusion she expected. From two circumstances Aladdin, when he saw his mother return, judged that she brought him good news; the one was, that she returned sooner than ordinary; and the next was, the gaiety of her countenance. “Well, mother,” said he to her, “may I entertain any hopes, or must I die with despair?” When she had pulled off her veil, and had sat herself down on the sofa by him, she said to him, “Not to keep you long in suspense, son, I will begin by telling you, that instead of thinking of dying, you have every reason to be very well satisfied.” Then pursuing her discourse, she told him how that she had an audience before everybody else, which made her come home so soon; the precautions she had taken lest she should have displeased the sultan, by making the proposal of marriage between him and the princess Badr-oul-boudour, and the favourable answer she had from the caliph’s own mouth; and that, as far as she could judge, the present wrought that powerful effect. “But when I least expected it,” said she, “and he was going to give me an answer, the grand vizier whispered him in the ear, and I was afraid it might be some obstacle to his good intentions towards us.”
Aladdin thought himself the most happy of all men, at hearing of this news, and thanked his mother for all the pains she had taken in the pursuit of this affair, the good success of which was of so great importance to his peace. Though, through his impatience to enjoy the object of his passion, three months seemed an age, yet he disposed himself to wait with patience, relying on the sultan’s word, which he looked upon to be irrevocable. But all that time he not only counted the hours, days, and weeks, but every moment. When two of the three months were passed, his mother one evening going to light the lamp, and finding no oil in the house, went out to buy some, and when she came into the city, found a general rejoicing. The shops, instead of being shut up, were open, dressed with foliage, every one striving to shew their zeal in the most distinguished manner. The streets were crowded with officers in habits of ceremony, mounted on horses richly caparisoned, each attended by a great many footmen. Aladdin’s mother asked the oil-merchant what was the meaning of all those doings. “Whence came you, good woman,” said he, “that you don’t know that the grand vizier’s son is to marry the princess Badr-oul-boudour, the sultan’s daughter, to-night? She will presently return from the baths; and these officers that you see, are to assist at the cavalcade to the palace, where the ceremony is to be solemnised.”