“Do not worry,” said his new friend. “I will. All I ask in return is the pleasure of your company, for I am lonely.” Ali gladly agreed! The next day, they walked through the streets of the city and looked at all the shops. One especially, a cloth-merchant’s shop, caught Ali’s attention. He said to his companion: “Would it not be wonderful to have such a shop and sell all these colorful designs, the gold brocade, the Indian silk, and all these other things!”

“Nothing is more simple,” said the friend. They walked to a large building that was all boarded up. “Here we will open a new shop,” he told Ali. And so they did. Ali’s friend bought the most precious textiles from distant countries. Whatever was not available in the city he ordered by ship from overseas. Soon, the shop was famous. Many people thronged in and around it; the street was always full of people, and carts could not get through. Everybody wanted to see those wonderful fabrics.

One day the sultan himself was carried through the street in a litter. His guards had great difficulty opening a passage through the crowd. The delay annoyed the sultan, and when he arrived at his palace he called his vizier and asked him if he had heard of that shop. “Alas, O prince of the age, I have,” said the vizier. “Not a day has passed in which my wife does not beg me to buy her more and more yards of silk or velvet from that shop. It was opened recently by two young men and is already famous for its choice of fine cloth and brocades.”

“That reminds me,” said the sultan. “I want some new garments for my daughter. Order that shop to send us some textiles to choose from for her birthday.”

Thus it happened that Ali arrived at the palace, laden with the very finest assortment of fabrics. The sultan allowed his daughter to choose the most expensive material that Ali had brought, the thinnest silk on earth, painted with colorful flowers. The princess was delighted and asked her father if the young merchant could come back the next day: She wanted to choose another garment, but she could not make up her mind.

So the next morning, Ali returned with even finer materials, and the princess chose a dark blue dress with diamonds sewn onto it. “This will be my evening robe,” she said, “and tomorrow I want to make a third choice.” She hoped that the sultan would call Ali again the next day, for she found him rather a nice young man. The sultan did, since he could refuse his daughter nothing that she asked.

The lover. That night Ali said to his friend: “Tonight, I feel distressed. Forgive me, but I would like to walk along the beach alone.”