The sultan granted his request, and said to the old woman, “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 for three months; at the expiration of that time come again.”
Aladdin’s mother returned home more gratified than she had expected, and told her son with much joy the condescending answer she had received from the sultan’s own mouth; and that she was to come to the divan that day three months.
Aladdin thought himself the most happy of all men at hearing this news, and thanked his mother for the pains she had taken in the affair. He counted every day, week, and even hour as it passed. When two of the three months were gone, his mother one evening, having no oil in the house, went out to buy some, and found a general rejoicing—the houses dressed with foliage, silks, and carpeting, and all the people striving to show their joy according to their ability. 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 this public festivity. “Whence came you, good woman,” said he, “that you know not that the grand vizier’s son is to marry the Princess Buddir al Buddoor, the sultan’s daughter, to-night? She will presently return from the bath; and these officers whom you
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