was spent, he would carry another to the old goldsmith, and on
this wise he and his mother increased in substance; but they
ceased not to live at their sufficiency, [FN#313] midwise [betwixt
rich and poor], [FN#314] without excessive spending [FN#315] or
squandering. As for Alaeddin, he left idleness and the commerce
of striplings and took to consorting with grown men; [FN#316] nay,
he would go every day to the market of the merchants and sit with
the great and the small of them and question of the ways and
fashions of commerce and the prices of articles of
merchandise [FN#317] and otherwhat. He used also to go to the
market of the goldsmiths and the market of the jewellers, and
there he would sit and look upon the different kinds of jewels
and see them bought and sold; whereby he became aware that the
fruits of the trees, wherewith he had filled the purses, [FN#318]
whenas he was in the treasure, were neither glass nor crystal,
but jewels, and knew that he had happened upon great wealth, such
as kings might nowise compass. Moreover, he noted all the jewels
that were in the jewellers' market, but saw not [among] the
biggest [of them] one to match with the smallest of those he had
at home.

He ceased not to go daily to the market of the jewellers and to
clap up acquaintance with the folk, making friends with them and
questioning them of buying and selling and giving and taking and
dear and cheap, till, one day of the days, he arose in the
morning and donning his clothes, went forth, intending, as of
wont, for the jewellers' market; but, as he went, he heard the
crier proclaiming aloud on this wise, "By commandment of the Lord
of Beneficence, the king of the age and monarch of the time and
the tide, let all the folk shut their shops and stores and enter