trees whatso thou pleasest, for all is thine so long as the Lamp
is in thy hand." Now when the Moorman ended his charge to
Alaeddin, he drew off a seal-ring[FN#92] and put it upon the
lad's forefinger saying, "O my son, verily this signet shall free
thee from all hurt and fear which may threaten thee, but only on
condition that thou bear in mind all I have told thee.[FN#93] So
arise straightway and go down the stairs, strengthening thy
purpose and girding the loins of resolution: moreover fear not
for thou art now a man and no longer a child. And in shortest
time, O my son, thou shalt win thee immense riches and thou shalt
become the wealthiest of the world." Accordingly, Alaeddin arose
and descended into the souterrain, where he found the four halls,
each containing four jars of gold and these he passed by, as the
Maroccan had bidden him, with the utmost care and caution. Thence
he fared into the garden and walked along its length until he
entered the saloon, where he mounted the ladder and took the Lamp
which he extinguished, pouring out the oil which was therein, and
placed it in his breast-pocket. Presently, descending the ladder
he returned to the garden where he fell to gazing at the trees
whereupon sat birds glorifying with loud voices their great
Creator. Now he had not observed them as he went in, but all
these trees bare for fruitage costly gems; moreover each had its
own kind of growth and jewels of its peculiar sort; and these
were of every colour, green and white; yellow, red and other such
brilliant hues and the radiance flashing from these gems paled
the rays of the sun in forenoon sheen. Furthermore the size of
each stone so far surpassed description that no King of the Kings
of the world owned a single gem equal to the larger sort nor
could boast of even one half the size of the smaller kind of
them.--And Shahrazad was surprised by the dawn of day and ceased