Alibaba is Arabic, and its basic meaning is thief. Later, there was a chivalrous thief who "robbed the rich and gave to the poor" also named Alibaba.

"Alibaba and the Forty Thieves" is a world-famous folk story from "One Thousand and One Nights" ("Arabian Nights"). However, Mr. Zhi Puhao, a researcher of Arabic literature, pointed out: "Galan was the first French scholar to translate and introduce "One Thousand and One Nights" to the West. After translating and publishing seven volumes of "One Thousand and One Nights", he searched for many oriental stories and translated them into five volumes and published them one after another. Among them are the stories of "Aladdin and the Magic Lamp" and "Alibaba and the Forty Thieves" which are not in the original Arabic version of "One Thousand and One Nights". "According to this view, "Aladdin and the Magic Lamp", "Alibaba and the Forty Thieves" and "One Thousand and One Nights" originally had no relationship and belonged to independent Arabic folk tales.