مَا لِيَ لَا أَرَى الْهُدْهُدَ
What is the matter with me that I do not see the hoopoe?
In Sūrat al-Naml, Solomon notices that the hoopoe is not in sight. The expression mā li, literally asking about his own condition, carries a strong sense of amazement at the bird's absence.
The overt question is about the speaker's own state, but the cause of astonishment is his failure to see the hoopoe. The explanatory discussion also records interpretive room for an element of real inquiry when the reason for the absence had not yet been settled; the rhetorical classification is therefore context-sensitive.