Aladdin’s mother fetched the china dish, and he took the jewels out of the two purses in which he had kept them, and placed them in the dish. But the brightness and lustre they had in the day-time, and the variety of the colours, so dazzled the eyes both of mother and son, that they were astonished beyond measure; for they had only seen them by the light of a lamp; for though Aladdin had seen them hang on the trees like fruit, beautiful to the eye, yet as he was but a boy, he did not take much notice of them; but looked on them only as trinkets.
After they had admired the beauty of this present some time, Aladdin said to his mother, “Now you cannot excuse yourself from going to the sultan, under the pretext of not having a present to make him, since here is one which will gain you a favourable reception.”
Though Aladdin’s mother, notwithstanding the beauty and lustre of the present, did not believe it so valuable as her son esteemed it, she thought it might nevertheless be agreeable to the sultan, and found that she could not have anything to say against it, but was always thinking of the request Aladdin wanted her to make to the sultan by favour of his present. “My son,” said she, “I cannot conceive that your present will have its desired effect, and that the sultan will look upon me with a favourable eye; and I am sure, that if I attempt to acquit myself on this message of yours, I shall have no power to open my mouth; and therefore I shall not only lose my labour, but the present, which you say is so extraordinary, and shall return home again in confusion, to tell you that your hopes are frustrated. I have told you the consequence, and you ought to believe me; but,” added she, “I will exert my best endeavour to please you, and wish I may have power to ask the sultan as you would have me; but certainly he will either laugh at me, or send me back like a fool, or be in so great a rage, as to make us both the victims of his fury.”
She used a great many more arguments to endeavour to make him change his mind; but the charms of the princess Badr-oul-boudour had made too great an impression on his heart to dissuade him from his design. Aladdin persisted in desiring his mother to execute his resolution, and she, as much out of tenderness as for fear he should be guilty of a greater piece of extravagance, condescended to his request.