מלכים א, פרק ח׳, פסוק ה׳

The procession of bringing the Ark of the Covenant up to the Temple was accompanied by an unprecedented display of honor, leadership participation, and mass sacrifice. The gathering around King Solomon did not consist of the general public. Instead, the assembly was made up specifically of the nation's leadership, including the elders and the heads of the families [רלב״ג, אברבנאל]. This was not a spontaneous crowd that simply gathered on its own. These leaders were officially and intentionally invited by the King to convene at a pre-determined time and date [מלבי״ם], coming directly to him for the event [מצודת ציון, ביאור שטיינזלץ].

Together, the King and the invited elders walked at the front of the procession, leading the way before the Ark [מצודת דוד, ביאור שטיינזלץ]. As the priests marched and carried the Ark toward its new place, the King and the accompanying leaders offered an enormous, nearly incomprehensible number of sheep and cattle [רלב״ג, אברבנאל]. The primary approach among commentators is that this massive scale of sacrifice, so vast that the animals could not even be counted, was a deliberate act to show the utmost honor to the historic moment of bringing the Ark into the House of God.