Learn English – Idiom / phrase for a treasure in a ruin

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How to describe some thing valuable that could be gained from an unexpected place? I heard a Persian Idiom that could be appropriate for this case:

a treasure in a ruin.

Is there any equivalent idiom or phrase for that?

Best Answer

Thanks to @Mazura for the thorough research (+1), in Persian literature The man of God is a treasure in a ruin means that a pious/virtuous human is as valuable as a treasure and very reliable in difficulties. So, this is not the case where we use the idiom , however we may say (s)he is as worthy as a treasure in a ruin.

As another (less) probable source for the idiom, below is a poem from another great Persian poet "Sa'di" (alongside with "Ferdowsi, the Great", "Rumi" and "Hafez"):

If livelihood were increased by knowledge /None would be more needy than the ignorant.

Nevertheless the ignorant receive a livelihood/At which the learned stand aghast.

The luck of wealth consists not in skill/ But only in the aid of heaven.

It happens in the world that many / Silly men are honoured and sages despised.

If an alchemist has died in grief and misery/ A fool discovered a treasure amidst ruins.

(The Gulistan of Sa'di from http://classics.mit.edu/Sadi/gulistan.2.i.html)