Membership Requirement: You must be a sitting Illustrious Master or Past Illustrious Master of a council of Cryptic Masons.

This is a side, or “chair” degree, and is conferred on present or past Illustrious Masters, usually during the time of the state Grand Council meeting. It also goes by the name of Thrice Illustrious Masters Order of the Silver Trowel. It consists of two sections, the candidate representing the young King Solomon in both sections. In the first section, the candidate learns of the conspiracy by his half-brother Adonijah, to wrest the throne by cunning from Solomon. He also learns of his mother (Bathsheba) interceding with the aged and ailing King David to prevent this. After securing David’s approval, Solomon is symbolically conducted to Gihon by Benaiah where he is duly obligated, anointed and hailed as King by Nathan the prophet and Zadok, the High Priest. In the second section, the newly anointed king is brought before his father David who, in his dying moments, instructs him in moral wisdom and counsels him to govern uprightly and to serve the Lord with all his strength. Upon Solomon’s assent to all this, the king expires.