NullPointerException deploying persistence unit with a map collection indexed using an Embeddable with an association to the entity which owns the map in JBoss EAP

Issue

• A Map association is defined between two entities as below

  @Embeddable
  public class TheMapKey implements Serializable {
      @ManyToOne
      private TheOne theOne;
  }
  
  @Entity
  public class TheOne {
      @Id
      private String id;
  
      @OneToMany(mappedBy = "theMapKey.theOne")
      @MapKey(name = "theMapKey")
      private Map<TheMapKey, TheMany> theManys = new HashMap<>();
  }
  
  @Entity
  public static class TheMany {
      @EmbeddedId
      private TheMapKey theMapKey;
  }
  

• During build of the entity manager factory an exception is raised

  ... javax.persistence.PersistenceException: [PersistenceUnit: XXX] Unable to build Hibernate SessionFactory
      at org.hibernate.jpa.boot.internal.EntityManagerFactoryBuilderImpl.persistenceException(EntityManagerFactoryBuilderImpl.java:1327)
      at org.hibernate.jpa.boot.internal.EntityManagerFactoryBuilderImpl.build(EntityManagerFactoryBuilderImpl.java:1253)
      at org.jboss.as.jpa.hibernate5.TwoPhaseBootstrapImpl.build(TwoPhaseBootstrapImpl.java:44)
      at org.jboss.as.jpa.service.PersistenceUnitServiceImpl$1$1.run(PersistenceUnitServiceImpl.java:167)
      ... 9 more
  Caused by: java.lang.NullPointerException
      at org.hibernate.loader.plan.build.internal.AbstractLoadPlanBuildingAssociationVisitationStrategy.foundCircularAssociation(AbstractLoadPlanBuildingAssociationVisitationStrategy.java:669)
      at org.hibernate.persister.walking.spi.MetamodelGraphWalker.visitAttributeDefinition(MetamodelGraphWalker.java:148)
      at org.hibernate.persister.walking.spi.MetamodelGraphWalker.visitAttributes(MetamodelGraphWalker.java:133)
      at org.hibernate.persister.walking.spi.MetamodelGraphWalker.visitCompositeDefinition(MetamodelGraphWalker.java:209)
      at org.hibernate.persister.walking.spi.MetamodelGraphWalker.visitCollectionIndex(MetamodelGraphWalker.java:240)
      at org.hibernate.persister.walking.spi.MetamodelGraphWalker.visitCollectionDefinition(MetamodelGraphWalker.java:217)
      at org.hibernate.persister.walking.spi.MetamodelGraphWalker.visitCollection(MetamodelGraphWalker.java:73)
      at org.hibernate.loader.plan.build.spi.MetamodelDrivenLoadPlanBuilder.buildRootCollectionLoadPlan(MetamodelDrivenLoadPlanBuilder.java:54)
      at org.hibernate.loader.collection.plan.AbstractLoadPlanBasedCollectionInitializer.<init>(AbstractLoadPlanBasedCollectionInitializer.java:61)
      at org.hibernate.loader.collection.plan.CollectionLoader.<init>(CollectionLoader.java:81)
      at org.hibernate.loader.collection.plan.CollectionLoader$Builder.byKey(CollectionLoader.java:74)
      at org.hibernate.loader.collection.plan.AbstractBatchingCollectionInitializerBuilder.buildNonBatchingLoader(AbstractBatchingCollectionInitializerBuilder.java:28)
      at org.hibernate.loader.collection.BatchingCollectionInitializerBuilder.createBatchingOneToManyInitializer(BatchingCollectionInitializerBuilder.java:85)
      at org.hibernate.persister.collection.OneToManyPersister.createCollectionInitializer(OneToManyPersister.java:513)
      at org.hibernate.persister.collection.AbstractCollectionPersister.postInstantiate(AbstractCollectionPersister.java:668)
      at java.util.concurrent.ConcurrentHashMap$ValuesView.forEach(ConcurrentHashMap.java:4707) [rt.jar:1.8.0_222]
      at org.hibernate.metamodel.internal.MetamodelImpl.initialize(MetamodelImpl.java:233)
      at org.hibernate.internal.SessionFactoryImpl.<init>(SessionFactoryImpl.java:295)
      at org.hibernate.boot.internal.SessionFactoryBuilderImpl.build(SessionFactoryBuilderImpl.java:467)
      at org.hibernate.jpa.boot.internal.EntityManagerFactoryBuilderImpl.build(EntityManagerFactoryBuilderImpl.java:1250)
      ...
  

• The schema deployed without an exception in EAP 6 / Hibernate 4