Arabs -- Folklore; Fairy tales; Fairy tales -- Arab countries; Folklore -- Arab countries; Tales -- Arab countries
The princess, who took great pleasure in giving the sultan the
satisfaction he demanded, said: "If I appear so little altered, I beg of
your majesty to consider that I received new life yesterday morning by
the presence of my dear husband and deliverer, Aladdin, whom I looked
upon and bewailed as lost to me. My greatest suffering was to find
myself forced not only from your majesty, but from my dear husband; not
only from the love I bore him, but from the uneasiness I laboured under
through fear that he, though innocent, might feel the effects of your
anger. As to what relates to my transportation, I was myself the
innocent cause of it." To persuade the sultan of the truth of what she
said, she gave him a full account of how the African magician had
disguised himself, and offered to change new lamps for old ones; how she
had amused herself in making that exchange; how the palace and herself
were carried away and transported into Africa, with the magician, who
was recognised by two of her women and the eunuch who made the exchange
of the lamp, when he had the audacity, after the success of his daring
enterprise, to propose himself for her husband; how he persecuted her
till Aladdin's arrival; how they had concerted measures to get the lamp
from him again, and the success they had fortunately met with by her
dissimulation in inviting him to supper, and giving him the cup with the
powder prepared for him. "For the rest," added she, "I leave it to
Aladdin to recount."
Aladdin had not much to tell the sultan, but only said: "When the
private door was opened I went up into the great hall, where I found the
magician lying dead on the sofa; and as I thought it not proper for the
princess to stay there any longer, I desired her to go down into her own
apartment, with her women and eunuchs. As soon as I was alone, and had
taken the lamp out of the magician's breast, I made use of the same
secret he had done, to remove the palace, and carry off the princess;
and by that means the palace was reconveyed to the place where it stood
before; and I have the happiness to restore the princess to your
majesty. But that your majesty may not think that I impose upon you, if
you will give yourself the trouble to go up into the hall, you may see
the magician punished as he deserved."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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