وَتَفَقَّدَ ٱلطَّيْرَ فَقَالَ مَا لِىَ لَآ أَرَى ٱلْهُدْهُدَ أَمْ كَانَ مِنَ ٱلْغَآئِبِينَ
Wa tafaqqadat taira faqaala maa liya laaa aral hud hud, am kaana minal ghaaa'ibeen
Süleyman, kuşları araştırarak: "Hüdhüd'ü niçin göremiyorum? Yoksa kayıplarda mı? Bana apaçık bir delil getirmelidir; yoksa onu ya şiddetli bir azaba uğratırım yahut keserim" dedi.
And he inspected the birds and said, "Why do I not see the hoopoe? Or is he among the absent?"
Tafaqqada names a review conducted specifically to find what is absent, so the scene is built around a gap rather than a crowd. A king with armies of jinn and men registers one missing bird, which is how the surah scales its attention down again after the ants. Everything that follows, the whole account of Sheba, arrives through the one who was not there.