The king also said unto them, Take with you the servants of your lord, and cause Solomon my son to ride upon mine own mule, and bring him down to Gihon:
Cause Solomon my son to ride upon mine own mule. Directions were forthwith given for the immediate coronation of Solomon. A procession was to be formed by the 'servants of their lord' - i:e., the kings body-guard. Mules were then used by all the princes (2 Samuel 13:29); but there was a state mule, of which all subjects were forbidden, under pain of death, to make use without special permission; so that its being granted to Solomon was a public declaration in his favour as the future king (see the notes at Esther 6:8-9).
Bring him down to Gihon - now Siloa, or Siloam, a pool or fountain on the west of Jerusalem (see the notes at 2 Chronicles 32:30) and the valley of Gihon (which began a little northward of the Damascus gate, and extended southward to a line with the Jaffa gate), was chosen as equally public for the counter proclamation, and well adapted to receive a vast multitude (Robinson's 'Biblical Researches,' 3:, p. 243-245; Barclay, 'City of the Great King,' p. 513; Thrupp, 'Ancient Jerusalem,' p. 463).