Querying in the following... <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" id="test"> <span id="A"> <span id="B"></span> </span> <span id="C"> <span id="D"></span> </span> </div> Query "ancestor::xhtml:span" from span#B Result: span#A Expected: span#A SUCCESS Query ".|ancestor::xhtml:span" from span#B Result: span#A span#B Expected: span#A span#B SUCCESS Query "ancestor::xhtml:span|." from span#B Result: span#A span#B Expected: span#A span#B SUCCESS Query "ancestor::xhtml:*[local-name()='span']" from span#B Result: span#A Expected: span#A SUCCESS Query ".|ancestor::xhtml:*[local-name()='span']" from span#B Result: span#A span#B Expected: span#A span#B SUCCESS Query "ancestor::xhtml:*[local-name()='span']|." from span#B Result: span#A span#B Expected: span#A span#B SUCCESS Query "(ancestor::xhtml:*[local-name()='span'])|." from span#B Result: span#A span#B Expected: span#A span#B SUCCESS Query "following::xhtml:*[local-name()='span']" from span#B Result: span#C span#D Expected: span#C span#D SUCCESS Query ".|following::xhtml:*[local-name()='span']" from span#B Result: span#B span#C span#D Expected: span#B span#C span#D SUCCESS Query "following::xhtml:*[local-name()='span']|." from span#B Result: span#B span#C span#D Expected: span#B span#C span#D SUCCESS