«زَيِّ الْقُطَطْ بِسَبَعْ تِرْوَاحْ»

The expression describes a person who keeps surviving dangers that might be expected to kill them, above all severe illnesses. Each recovery seems to confirm a remarkable, almost uncanny hold on life. It concerns survival, not general good fortune or success.

The image comes from a folk belief that cats have seven souls or lives. When one is lost, another supposedly takes its place, so a person who survives repeated dangers seems to possess spare lives.

Say it, usually with warmth or wry amazement, about someone who has come through serious illness or other life-threatening trouble again and again, especially when others had expected the worst.