The #include
directive literally means "copy all the data in that file to this spot." So when you include the header file, it's textually within the code file, and everything in it will be there, give or take the effect of other directives or macro replacements, when the code file (now called the compilation unit or translation unit) is handed off from the preprocessor module to the compiler module.
Which means the declaration and definition of your static member function were really in the same file all along...