- [At the pool]
- Princess: Who are you?
- Ahmad: Your slave.
- Princess: Where have you come from?
- Ahmad: From the other side of time, to find you.
- Princess: How long have you been searching?
- Ahmad: Since time began.
- Princess: Now that you've found me, how long will you stay?
- Ahmad: To the end of time.
- Princess: For me, there can be no more beauty in the world, than yours.
- Ahmad: For me, there can be no more pleasure in the world, than to please you.
- Ahmad: Are men only to be ruled by fear?
- Jaffar: Men are evil. Hatred behind their eyes, lies on their lips, betrayal in their hearts. You will learn one day, Great King, that there are three things that men respect: the lash that descends, the yoke that breaks, and the sword that slays. By the power and terror of these you may conquer the earth.
- Jaffar: Forget Ahmad. He's no longer blind. For a man with eyes the world is full of women. Only I am cursed, that I can see only you.
- Abu: Where are we now ?
- Djinn: Above the roof... of the world
- Abu: Has the world got a roof ?
- Djinn: Of course. Supported by seven pillars, and the seven pillars are set on the shoulders of a genie whose strength is beyond thought, and the genie stands on an eagle, and the eagle on a bull, and the bull on a fish, and the fish swims in the sea of eternity...
- Abu: Hey, old friend. Whose palace is this?
- The Merchant: Why, the palace of a Sultan, children of ignorance. The palace of one thousand toys.
- Abu: Toys?
- The Merchant: Where have you come from? You beggars have no importance, don't you know that the Sultan has the greatest collection of toys in the world?
- Ahmad: Why toys?
- The Merchant: The Sultan is an old man, and old man are like children. He guards his toys more jealously than he guards his daughter. But, I say no more. Now, out of my way, you masters of one thousand fleas. Allah be with you, but I doubt it.
- [he walks away]
- Ahmad: Oh ye, who Allah gave the gift of sight / To fill your eyes with beauty and delight / Spare me a thought to whom your wondrous world is but a city of eternal night. / Alms for the love of Allah.
- Astrologer: But she loves the blind man.
- Jaffar: Do you call the lisping of two children in the garden love? Love she has yet to learn and I have yet to teach her.
- [Abu enters the tent and sees the Old King]
- The Old King: Welcome, our prince.
- [Abu steps forward to the Old King]
- The Old King: Welcome, little prince.
- Abu: Father of a beard, there's some mistake. I'm not a prince. I'm only a thief.
- The Old King: For you, we have been waiting twice two thousand years.
- Abu: Oh, no. Not waiting for me, because I didn't know I was coming, and I don't know how I've come. Who are you, father of miracles? And where am I?
- The Old King: This is the land of legend, where everything is possible when seen through the eyes of youth. We are the remnant of the golden age. Golden because gold was nothing, no more than the sand beneath your feet. Or the stone that we became.
- Abu: How did you become stone?
- The Old King: We were petrified with horror for the evil done among men when they ceased to be children, and to believe in the beauty of the impossible. Whenever the heart of a child returns to us, and comes into us, we live again. And so, as that child, you are to be my successor. Now, come with me and I will present you with two insignia of true kingship.
- [Jailer and the guard are taking Abu to prison]
- Abu: No, I say! No, not in prison! Don't put me in prison, no!
- Jailer: Come on in, thief. Cut off his right arm, and then his left, and then his left leg, and then his right, and then his head.
- Abu: No! No, no, no! I say, no!
- [Abu tries to take the key from him and Jailer pushes him]
- Abu: Don't kill me, I don't want to die!
- Jailer: Tomorrow morning.
- [turning to Ahmad]
- Jailer: And as for a madman, our great Sultan Jaffar is merciful. Only his head, as the sun rises.
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