lord," answered the Vizier, "my counsel is that thou require of
him forty dishes of pure virgin gold, full of jewels, such as
she [FN#426] brought thee the other day, [FN#427] and forty
slave-girls to bear the dishes and forty black slaves." "By
Allah, O Vizier," rejoined the Sultan, "'thou speakest rightly;
for that this is a thing to which he may not avail and so we
shall be rid of him by [fair] means." [FN#428] So he said to
Alaeddin's mother, "Go and tell thy son that I abide by the
promise which I made him, but an if he avail unto my daughter's
dowry; to wit, I require of him forty dishes of pure gold, which
must all be full of jewels [such as] thou broughtest me [erst],
together with forty slave-girls to carry them and forty male
slaves to escort and attend them. If, then; thy son avail unto
this, I will marry him to my daughter."

Alaeddin's mother returned home, shaking her head and saying,
"Whence shall my poor son get these dishes of jewels? Supposing,
for the jewels and the dishes, that he return to the treasure and
gather the whole from the trees,--and withal methinketh not it is
possible to him; but say that he fetch them,--whence [shall he
get] the slaves and slave-girls?" And she gave not over talking
to herself till she reached the house, where Alaeddin awaited
her, and when she came in to him, she said to him, "O my son,
said I not to thee, 'Think not to attain to the Lady
Bedrulbudour'? Indeed, this is a thing that is not possible unto
folk like ourselves." Quoth he, "Tell me what is the news." And
she said to him, "O my son, the Sultan received me with all
courtesy, according to his wont, and meseemeth he meant fairly by
us, but [for] thine accursed enemy the Vizier; for that, after I
had bespoken the Sultan in thy name, even as thou badest me,