Wouldn't you have needed to know the phone number to have added it to WhatsApp? Otherwise you couldn't add it.
Also, WhatsApp requires a phone number to verify your account. So, unless you are trying to circumvent that, you would need to enter your phone number, and verify it via text or voice, to have an active WhatsApp account.
Now if you are using a tablet you got from someone else, that already had the app installed, then clear the apps data, uninstall the app, restart the tablet and reinstall the app. You would, again/still, have to enter your phone number for verification purposes.