How to delay display of Bootstrap 3 modal after click

You can delay the click of the trigger button, then activate the modal directly:

$('[data-toggle=modal]').on('click', function (e) {
    var $target = $($(this).data('target'));
    $target.data('triggered',true);
    setTimeout(function() {
        if ($target.data('triggered')) {
            $target.modal('show')
                .data('triggered',false); // prevents multiple clicks from reopening
        };
    }, 3000); // milliseconds
    return false;
});

http://jsfiddle.net/mblase75/H6UM4/

Use .on() to hook into the event:

var isFirstShowCall = false;

$('#myModal').on('show.bs.modal', function (e) {
    isFirstShowCall = !isFirstShowCall; // Prevents an endless recursive call
    if(isFirstShowCall) {
            e.preventDefault(); // Prevent immediate opening
            window.setTimeout(function(){
                $('#myModal').modal('show');
            }, 3000)
    }
});

http://jsfiddle.net/G9XeA/