Genies and flying carpets may still be up for debate, but experts now believe that “Aladdin” could actually be based on a real person.

“A lot of new research being done about the man behind Aladdin,” says Arafat A. Razzaque, researcher at Cambridge University’s Centre of Islamic Studies, in an interview with Time magazine.

Disney’s 1992 animated classic, which is set to make it’s live-action debut on Friday, has long been thought of as a fictional tale — pulled from the pages of “One Thousand and One Nights,” also known as “Arabian Nights.”

The collection of Middle Eastern folk stories was famously translated by French scholar Antoine Galland, who served as a secretary to the ambassador to Constantinople in the 17th century. Experts believe his version to be the most authentic.