In 1992, Disney’s animated Aladdin hit the big screen, and audiences fell in love with the adventures of an orphan—the “Diamond in the Rough”—who crossed paths with a flying carpet, a powerful genie, and an independent princess. The movie became a classic, spawning a Broadway musical and a live-action remake that hits theaters this weekend. But how much does the big screen Aladdin resemble its source material? (The Walt Disney Company is majority owner of National Geographic Partners.)

Aladdin is part of a centuries-old stories-within-a-story called The Thousand and One Nights (also called The Arabian Nights). The heroine, Scherherazade, is married to a murderous king, who kills his new wives one day after wedding them. To save her life, she spins