uilding, never saw kings
its like, and be it complete with all its requisites of kingly and
magnificent furniture and so forth." "Hearkening and obedience," replied
the genie and [475] disappeared; but, before the dawn broke, he came
to Alaeddin and said to him, "O my lord, the palace is finished to the
utmost of the wish; wherefore, an thou wouldst see it, arise forthright
and look on it." So Alaeddin arose and the genie carried him, in the
twinkling of an eye, to the palace, which when he saw, he was amazed
at its building, for that all its stones were of jade and alabaster and
porphyry and mosaic. The genie carried him into a treasury full of all
manner of gold and silver and precious jewels past count or reckoning,
price or estimation; then he brought him into another place, where he
saw all the requisites of the table, platters and spoons and ewers and
basins and cups, of gold and silver, and thence to the kitchen, where
he found cooks, [476] with their cooking-gear and utensils, all on like
wise of gold and silver. Moreover, he brought him into a place, which he
found full of coffers overflowing with royal raiment, such as ravished
the wit, gold-inwoven stuffs, Indian and Chinese, and brocades, and
he showed him also many other places, all full of that which beggareth
description, till at last he brought him into a stable, wherein
were horses whose like is not found with the kings of the world; and
therewithin he showed him a storehouse, full of housings and saddles of
price, all broidered with pearls and precious stones and so forth.

Alaeddin was amazed and bewildered at the greatness of these riches,
whereunto the mightiest king in the world might not avail, and all the
work of one night; more by token that the palace was full of slaves and
slave girls such as would bewitch a saint with their loveliness. But the
most marvellous of all was that he saw in the palace an upper hall [477]
and [478] a belvedere [479] with four-and-twenty oriels, all wroughten
of emeralds and rubies and other jewels, and of one of these oriels
the lattice-work was by his desire left unfinished, [480] so the Sultan
should fail of its completion. When he had viewed the palace, all of it,
he rejoiced and was exceeding glad; then he turned to the genie and said
to him, "I desire of thee one thing which is lacking and whereof I had
forgotten to bespeak thee." Quoth the slave, "Seek what thou wilt, O my
lord;" and Alaeddin said to him, "I wi