Komentarz do Królów I 10:28

The source of the horses that Shlomo possessed. Was from Egypt.

A privileged cartel. The gathering of horse dealers was in Egypt. Shlomo’s merchants bought [the rights] from the king of Egypt, because no person could export horses from there except through them. This is what I heard. Therefore, there is a “zakef gadol”¹⁵I.e., a cantillation signifying a pause. on “ומקוה,” to denote that the word מקוה stands by itself and is not connected with what follows it.¹⁶Alternatively, מקוה is linen thread [thread=תקוה, See Yehoshua 2:18], i.e. Egypt exported two items for Shlomo, horses and linen thread—Radak. Or מקוה [=מן קוה], i.e., they brought horses from a region called קוה.—Metzudas Dovid