وَيَسْـَٔلُونَكَ عَن ذِى ٱلْقَرْنَيْنِ ۖ قُلْ سَأَتْلُوا۟ عَلَيْكُم مِّنْهُ ذِكْرًا
Wa yas'aloonaka 'an Zil Qarnaini qul sa atloo 'alaikum minhu zikraa
They ask you about Dhul-Qarnayn. Say, "I will recite to you an account of him."
The question put is who the man was, and the answer offered is dhikr, an account: the surah supplies his deeds and withholds his identity. Proposals have included a Himyarite king, a Persian ruler and Alexander, and fourteen centuries have not closed the matter. The three expeditions that follow read better once the missing name is taken as deliberate.