unparsed-entity-uri()
File: Data.xml <poem> <verse>line 1</verse> <verse>line 2</verse> <picture picfile="squadron" /> <verse>line 3</verse> <verse>line 4</verse> <verse>line 5</verse> <picture picfile="ceres" /> </poem> File: Transform.xslt <xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" version="1.0"> <xsl:output method="html" /> <xsl:template match="poem"> <html> <body> <xsl:apply-templates /> </body> </html> </xsl:template> <xsl:template match="verse"> <p> <xsl:apply-templates /> </p> </xsl:template> <xsl:template match="picture"> <img src="{unparsed-entity-uri(@picfile)}" /> </xsl:template> </xsl:stylesheet> Output: <html> <body> <p>line 1</p> <p>line 2</p> <img src=""> <p>line 3</p> <p>line 4</p> <p>line 5</p> <img src=""> </body> </html>