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.”
The sultan hearkened to this discourse with a great deal of mildness, without shewing the least anger or passion; but before he gave her any answer, he asked her what she had brought tied up in that napkin. She took the china dish, which she had set down at the foot of the throne, before she prostrated herself before him; she untied it, and presented it to the sultan.
The sultan’s amazement and surprise were inexpressible, when he saw so many large, beautiful, and valuable jewels collected in one dish. He remained for some time motionless with admiration. At last, when he had recovered himself, he received the present from Aladdin’s mother’s hand, and crying out in a transport of joy, “How rich and how beautiful!” After he had admired and handled all the jewels, one after another, he turned about to his grand vizier, and shewing him the dish, said, “Look here, and confess that your eyes never beheld any thing so rich and beautiful before.” The vizier was charmed. “Well,” continued the sultan, “what sayest thou to such a present? Is it not worthy of the princess my daughter! And ought I not to bestow her on one who values her at so great price?”
These words put the grand vizier into a strange agitation. The sultan had some time before signified to him his intention of bestowing the princess his daughter on a son of his; therefore he was afraid, and not without grounds, that the sultan, dazzled by so rich and extraordinary a present, might change his mind. Thereupon, going to him, and whispering him in the ear, he said to him, “Sir, I cannot but own that the present is worthy of the princess; but I beg of your majesty to grant me three months before you come to a resolution. I hope, before that time, my son, on whom you have had the goodness to look with a favourable eye, will be able to make a nobler present than Aladdin, who is an entire stranger to your majesty.”