the genie and disappearing, was absent awhile, then returned with
the forty slave-girls, each attended by a male slave and bearing
on her head a dish of pure gold, full of precious jewels. So he
brought them before Alaeddin and said to him, "Here is that which
thou soughtest. Tell me an thou need thing or service other than
this." Quoth Alaeddin, "I need nothing [more]; if I need aught, I
will summon thee and tell thee."

Accordingly, the genie vanished and after a little, Alaeddin's
mother returned and entering the house, saw the slaves and
slave-girls; whereat she marvelled and said, "All this is of the
Lamp; God continue it unto my son!" Then, before she put off her
veil, Alaeddin said to her, "O my mother, this is thy time, ere
the Sultan enter his palace [and withdraw] to his harem. Take him
what he seeketh, and that forthright, so he may know that I can
avail unto that which he requireth, ay, and more, and that he was
deluded by the Vizier; albeit he thought to baffle me, he and his
Vizier." Then he arose and opening the house-door, let out the
damsels and the slaves, pair by pair, each damsel with a slave by
her side, so that they filled the street. His mother forewent
them and the people of the quarter, when they saw that rare and
magnificent sight, stood looking and marvelling and gazing upon
the faces of the slave-girls and their grace and goodliness [and
their apparel], for that they were clad in clothes all inwoven
with gold and studded with jewels; nay, the least one's clothes
of them were worth thousands. Moreover they looked at the
dishes [FN#431] and saw flashing therefrom a radiance that
outshone the light of the sun, albeit each dish was covered with
a piece of brocade, gold-inwrought and studded eke with precious
jewels. Alaeddin's [FN#432] mother fared on and the damsels and