«زَيِّ التُّرْكِي الْمَرْفُوتْ يِصَلِّي عَلَى مَا يِسْتَخْدِمْ»

The image is a dismissed Turkish official, used in this saying as a stock figure of the arrogant officeholder. Stripped of his post, he turns devout and never misses a prayer, but only until he is employed again. Once he is back in service, the devotion disappears and his former haughtiness returns.

The saying targets people whose goodness depends on circumstance: they become humble, pious, or agreeable in hard times, then drop that behavior as soon as things improve. It exposes conduct that serves the moment rather than reflecting genuine character, contrasting how such a person acts in hardship with how they act in ease.

Used mockingly of someone whose humility or piety appears only during setbacks and vanishes once fortune or office returns. Because it rests on an ethnic stereotype of 'the Turk', quote it carefully as a historical saying, not as an endorsement of that stereotype.