Asking a question "to", "from", or "of"?

If you have to use a preposition with ask a question, then of your choices, certainly it has to be of.

The thing is that normally, we wouldn’t use a preposition at all to name the person we’re posing the question to. Instead, we’d just use an indirect object, which must fall between the verb and the direct object:

• I’ll ask them three questions. [indirect object]
• I’ll ask three questions of them. [prepositional object]

Or like this:

• He asked them my name. [indirect object]
• He asked my name of them. [prepositional object, but somewhat stilted]

But remember, you also ask someone for something, which makes it more of a request instead of just questioning them:

• He asked them for my phone number.
• He requested my phone number from them.

I can't find any references that really address this, but as a native English speaker, this is what sounds right to my ear:

Ask John a question.

Ask a question of John.

Pose a question to John.

Request a response to a question from John.

Ordinarily we use none of these: we say ask a person/him/her a question. But when we wish to express the person to whom the question is addressed with a preposition phrase, we use of: ask a question of a person/him/her.

Likewise, we inquire of someone what it is that we want to know. But as MrsLannister points out, this does not hold with other verbs.