But I won't tell till I get a few guesses

My guess Assyria (which happens to reside in Iraq).

I meant that..
Inside Iraq or some such.

But it wasn't a correct answer either.

Watch the answer be Sumer. LoL

Zimbabwe.

up 'Orientalist' tales...

(And now I will wait patiently for the actual correct answer. )

(although I think the OP was talking about the setting of the story, instead of its original source)

The French translator that produced one of the earliest European translations added it into his version - it doesn't have any antecedents in the original Arabian Nights, or in the Arab/Persian/Indian storytelling tradition they came from. He claims to have gotten the story from a Syrian storyteller, so that is it's most likely source. But it is quite possible that he made the story up on his own.

n/t

But the illustrations were unmistakeably Arabian in style. When Aladdin is transformed into a prince, it depicts him in a turban, Arabian brocade, fine, high riding boots, and mounted on a magnificent Arabian stallion. The backgrounds were all vast, sweeping desert vistas, and Mogul-style architecture with onion domes, etc.

but I may not have read that version until well into my adult years. I also got read a child's version of Aladdin that wasn't the Disney version (they changed the hell out of the story, and I continue to see people quote the genie's "rules" as if it was an authentic source.)

One of the best renditions of the story was from Fairytale Theater, with James Earl Jones as the genie, Leonard Nimoy as the evil wazir, and Robert Carradine as Aladdin.

Oh, I just read that this episode was also Tim Burton's directorial debut.

of course all the tales take place in a China where everyone has an Arab sounding name and the king utter Muslim moral precepts.

Another "exotic" element is the fact that the ancient sorcerer who starts all the action is from "the Maghreb", meaning the West. It's never clear in the story if the sorcerer is from Morocco or Europe.