«شَالِ الْمَيَّهْ بِالْغُرْبَالْ»

A sieve is full of holes, so no one could ever lift water with one. By claiming that someone did exactly that, the saying credits them with achieving the impossible through cleverness, craft, and a knack for finding a way where none seemed to exist.

The expression works through deliberate overstatement. It ties success to a task that cannot be done, much like the related image of digging a well with a needle, and so it praises extraordinary ingenuity rather than describing a real event or mocking futile labor.

Say it about someone who has managed something that looked hopeless, crediting their resourcefulness and skill. It works as admiring hyperbole, for example when a person finishes a task with almost no means or overcomes obstacles everyone assumed were impossible to get past.