Now thou knowest [FN#452] that Alaeddin was the son of a poor man,
a tailor: yet now none had thought it, [FN#453] but had said,
"This is the chiefest of the sons of the kings," extolled be the
perfection of Him who changeth and is not changed!

Then the slave of the lamp came to him and taking him up, set him
down in his house and said to him, "O my lord, dost thou need
aught?" "Yes," answered Alaeddin; "I will have thee bring me
eight-and-forty mamelukes, [FN#454] four-and-twenty to walk before
me and four-and-twenty to walk behind me, with their horses and
clothes and arms, and let all that is upon them and their horses
be of stuffs costly and precious exceedingly, such as are not
found in kings' treasuries. Then bring me a stallion fit for the
riding of the Chosroes and be his trappings all of gold, embossed
with noble jewels; and bring me eight-and-forty thousand diners,
in each mameluke's hand a thousand, for that I purpose presently
to visit the Sultan; wherefore delay thou not on me, since I
cannot go thither without all that whereof I have bespoken thee.
Bring me also twelve slave-girls, who must be unique in
loveliness and clad in the richest of raiment, so they may attend
my mother to the Sultan's palace, and let each slave-girl have
with her a suit of apparel fit for the wearing of kings'
wives." [FN#455]

"Hearkening and obedience," replied the genie and disappearing,
brought him in the twinkling of an eye all that he had commanded
him withal, whilst in his hand he held a stallion, whose like is
not among the horses of the Arabs of the Arabs, [FN#456] with
housings of the richest stuffs brocaded with gold; whereupon
Alaeddin called his mother forthright and delivered her the