“I am the King of the Demons of the Earth, and my name is Zadok,” answered the being. “I was once thy father’s slave, and now I am thine, thou being his son. When thou speakest I must obey, and whatever thou commandest me to do that I must do.” “For instance, what can you do for me?” said the young man. “I can do whatsoever you ask me; I can make you rich.” “You can make me rich?” “Yes, I can make you richer than a king.” “Then make me rich as soon as you can,” said Aben Hassen the Fool, “and that is all that I shall ask of you now.” “It shall be done,” said the Demon; “spend all that thou canst spend, and thou shalt always have more. Has my lord any further commands for his slave?” “No,” said the young man, “there is nothing more; you may go now.” And thereupon the Demon vanished like a flash. “And to think,” said the young man, as he came up out of the vault--“and to think that all this I should never have found if I had obeyed the Talisman.” [Illustration] Such riches were never seen in that land as the young man now possessed. There was no end to the treasure that poured in upon him. He lived like an emperor. He built a palace more splendid than the palace of the king. He laid out vast gardens of the most exquisite beauty, in which there were fountains as white as snow, trees of rare fruit and flowers that filled all the air with their perfume, summer-houses of alabaster and ebony. Every one who visited him was received like a prince, entertained like a king, given a present fit for an emperor, and sent away happy. The fame of all these things went out through all the land, and every one talked of him and the magnificence that surrounded him. It came at last to the ears of the king himself, and one day he said to his minister, “Let us go and see with our own eyes if all the things reported of this merchant’s son are true.” So the king and his minister disguised themselves as foreign merchants, and went that evening to the palace where the young man lived. A servant dressed in clothes of gold and silver cloth stood at the door, and called to them to come in and be made welcome. He led them in, and to a chamber lit with perfumed lamps of gold. Then six black slaves took them in charge and led them to a bath of white marble. They were bathed in perfumed water and dried with towels of fine linen. When they came forth they were clad in clothes of cloth of silver, stiff with gold and jewels. Then twelve handsome white slaves led them through a vast and splendid hall to a banqueting-room. When they entered they were deafened with the noise of carousing and merrymaking. Aben Hassen the Fool sat at the head of the table upon a throne of gold, with a canopy of gold above his head. When he saw the king and the minister enter, he beckoned to them to come and sit beside him. He showed them special favor because they were strangers, and special servants waited upon them.