Abou Hassan, a young merchant of Bagdad, and hero of the tale called 'The Sleeper Awakened," in the Arabian Nights' Entertainments. While Abou Hassan is asleep he is conveyed to the palace of Haroun-al-Raschid, and the attendants are ordered to do everything they can to make him fancy himself the caliph. He subsequently becomes the caliph's chief favourite.

¶ Shakespeare, in the induction of Taming of the Shrew, befools "Christopher Sly" in a similar way, but Sly thinks it was "nothing but a dream."

¶ Philippe le Bon, duke of Burgundy, on his marriage with Eleonora, tried the same trick.--Burton: Anatomy of Melancholy, ii. 2, 4.

Abou Hassan. The hero of one of the stories in the "Arabian Nights' Entertainments,"--a young man of Bagdad, who, by a stratagem of Haroun-Al-Raschid, was twice made to believe himself caliph, and who afterward became in reality the caliph's chief favorite and companion.

Ah! were I caliph for a day, as honest Abou Hassan wished to be, I would scourge me these jugglers out of the commonwealth with rods of scorpions.
--Sir W. Scott.

Addington [Secretary of the Treasury], on the other hand, was by no means inclined to descend from his high position. He was, indeed, under a delusion much resembling that of Abou Hassan in the Arabian tale. His brain was turned by his short and unreal caliphate.
--Macaulay.