«اِلسَّكْرَانْ سُلْطَانْ زَمَانُهْ»

The saying pictures intoxication as a kind of temporary coronation. For as long as the drink holds him, the drunkard carries himself like the supreme ruler of his time, fearless and answerable to no one, as though the ordinary limits binding everyone else had been lifted for him alone.

The crown is imaginary; 'sultan' is figurative and aims at no actual ruler or politics. His feeling of command is borrowed from the drink and vanishes once he sobers up, so the proverb mocks the swagger, recklessness and bossiness that intoxication can produce, setting his imagined majesty against the reality of a man who has simply had too much.

Suitable for a wry comment on someone who, after drinking, swaggers, takes reckless chances, or starts dictating to the people around him as if his word were law, highlighting that the authority he feels is only an effect of the drink.