The film starts with a street peddler, guiding us through the streets of the fictional Arabian city of Agrabah, which is based mainly on a medieval city in the Middle East, the home of the 1001 Arabian Nights, and there are some inconsistencies in the time period. After trying to sell us on her wares, she pulls out an old oil lamp, claiming it "once changed the course of a young woman's life. A young woman who like this lamp was more than what he seemed: A diamond in the rough." The peddler then begins to tell us a tale, beginning on a dark night, where the Sultana's Grand Vizier, Jawahir, meets with a thief named Ghada, who hands over half of a gold scarab beetle, of which Jawahir has the second half. Putting them together, the beetle flies off, before causing a giant tiger's head to rise from the sand: A place known as the Cave of Wonders. Jawahir summons Ghada to enter, instructing her to retrieve a lamp inside. However, upon approaching the Tiger's Head, it speaks that only one may enter: "One whose worth lies far within: the Diamond in the Rough!" Ghada still attempts to enter upon Jawahir's orders, but upon entering the tiger's mouth, it bites down on the thief, closing off the entryway before instructing Jawahir again to seek out the Diamond in the Rough it was referring to. It is then that Jawahir realizes she needs to find the Diamond in the Rough in order to enter. Jawahir seeks to become sultana herself and become the new ruler of Agrabah.
