Chapter V

His marriage to the princess was performed with the utmost splendor. There was feasting and music and dancing, and when the princess was brought to her new palace she was so dazzled by its richness that she said to Aladdin, "I thought, prince, there was nothing so beautiful in the world as my father's palace, but now I know that I was deceived."

The next day Aladdin with a troop of slaves went himself to the Sultan and asked him to come with the Grand Vizier and lords of the court to a repast in the palace of the princess. The Sultan gladly consented, and the nearer he came to the building the more he marveled at its grandeur. When he entered the hall of the twenty-four windows he exclaimed,--

"This palace is one of the wonders of the world. Where else shall we find walls built of gold and silver, and windows of diamonds, rubies, and emeralds? But tell me this. Why, in a hall of such beauty, was one window left incomplete?"

"Sire," said Aladdin, "I left it so, that you should have the glory of finishing this hall."

"I take your wish kindly," said the Sultan, "and will give orders about it at once."

When the jewelers and goldsmiths were called they undertook to finish the window, but needed all the jewels the Sultan could give and the Grand Vizier lend for the work. Even the jewels of Aladdin's gift were used, and after working for a month the window was not half finished. Aladdin therefore dismissed them all one day, bade them undo what they had done, and take the jewels back to the Sultan and Vizier. Then he rubbed his lamp, and there was the genie.

"Genie," he said, "I ordered thee to leave one of the four and twenty windows imperfect, and thou hast obeyed me. Now I would have thee make it like the rest." And in a moment the work was done.

The Sultan was greatly surprised when the chief jeweler brought back the stones and said that their work had been stopped, he could not tell why. A horse was brought, and the Sultan rode at once to Aladdin's palace to ask what it all meant. One of the first things he saw there was the finished window. He could hardly believe it to be true, and looked very closely at all the four and twenty to see if he was deceived. When he was convinced he embraced Aladdin and kissed him between the eyes and said,--

"My son, what a man you are to do such things in the twinkling of an eye! there is not your fellow in the world; the more I know of you the more I admire you."

Aladdin won not only the love of the Sultan, but also of the people. As he went to one mosque or another to prayers, or paid visits to the Grand Vizier and lords of the court, he caused two slaves who walked by the side of his horse to throw handfuls of money to the people in the streets. Thus he lived for several years, making himself dear to all.