Aladdin

In the tale as transmitted in Galland's French edition and later retellings, Aladdin is introduced as an impoverished young man from 'one of the cities of Ancient China' who is recruited and manipulated by a Maghrebi sorcerer posing as his uncle. The sorcerer tricks Aladdin into retrieving a magical oil lamp from a booby-trapped cave by sending him inside and sealing the entrance; Aladdin acquires both a magic ring (given earlier by the sorcerer) and the lamp during these events. After escaping with the help of a spirit released by the ring, Aladdin retains the lamp (which houses a more powerful spirit) and uses its power to build a palace and marry a sultan's daughter. The sorcerer later steals the lamp and the palace is transported; Aladdin recovers the lamp (using the ring to summon aid) and defeats the sorcerer and his brother. Textual scholarship records that the story was not present in the earliest Arabic Nights manuscripts and entered the Nights corpus through Galland after being told to him by Hanna Diyab. Some later Arabic manuscripts are considered back-translations of Galland's French.

Sources describe Aladdin narratively as an 'impoverished young ne'er-do-well' at the story's opening and later as a wealthy palace owner after he obtains the lamp's aid. Specific physical details such as height, complexion, or distinctive clothing are not provided in the supplied summaries; his transformation in the tale is social and material (from poverty to riches and princely status) rather than described via fixed bodily attributes.

Aladdin possesses no innate supernatural powers in the sources; his effectiveness depends entirely on enchanted objects he acquires. A magic ring, when rubbed, summons a 'lesser genie' able to free him from the cave and perform limited services. A magic oil lamp, when cleaned or rubbed, releases a far more powerful spirit ('the genie of the lamp') bound to obey the holder and capable of granting wealth, constructing a palace, and transporting possessions. Aladdin uses these object-bound spirits to rise in status, marry a princess, and to confront and ultimately defeat the sorcerer antagonists, but he is vulnerable when he ceases to possess the lamp or is deceived into surrendering it.