grace, that the most experienced horseman would not have taken
him for a novice. The streets through which he was to pass were
almost instantly filled with an innumerable concourse of people,
who made the air echo with acclamations, especially every time
the six slaves who carried the purses threw handfuls of gold
among the populace. Neither did these acclamations and shouts of
joy come from those alone who scrambled for the money, but from a
superior rank of people, who could not forbear applauding Alla ad
Deen's generosity. Not only those who knew him when he played in
the streets like a vagabond did not recollect him, but those who
saw him but a little while before hardly recognised him, so much
were his features altered: such were the effects of the lamp, as
to procure by degrees to those who possessed it perfections
suitable to the rank to which the right use of it advanced them.
Much more attention was paid to Alla ad Deen's person than to the
pomp and magnificence of his attendants, as a similar show had
been seen the day before when the slaves walked in procession
with the present to the sultan. Nevertheless the horse was much
admired by good judges, who knew how to discern his beauties,
without being dazzled by the jewels and richness of the
furniture. When the report was everywhere spread, that the sultan
was going to give the princess in marriage to Alla ad Deen,
nobody regarded his birth, nor envied his good fortune, so worthy
he seemed of it in the public opinion.

When he arrived at the palace, everything was prepared for his
reception; and when he came to the gate of the second court, he
would have alighted from his horse, agreeably to the custom
observed by the grand vizier, the commander in chief of the
empire, and governors of provinces of the first rank; but the