“The king went to the great shrine at Gibeon in order to sacrifice there. He used to offer a thousand entirely burned offerings on that altar.” – 1 Kings 3:4 (CEB)
Before God says anything to Solomon, Solomon makes a very large gesture. A thousand burnt offerings at the shrine in Gibeon. The temple does not exist yet, so this is an open-air altar, and a thousand is not a number anyone arrives at by accident.
It is worth asking what that gesture was for. Solomon has just taken a throne he did not get cleanly. His older brother had a claim. People died securing the succession. Whatever else a thousand offerings are, they are public, and everyone within a day’s walk knew about them.
God does not comment on the thousand. The story moves straight past it to a dream, where nobody is watching and no one can be impressed. That is where the real conversation happens. What are you doing in public that you have not yet said to God in private?
God who is not impressed by scale, meet me where nobody is watching. Let what I do in public and what I ask in private be the same thing. Amen.