diff --git a/ext/simplexml/simplexml.c b/ext/simplexml/simplexml.c
index 57c0627d61a6..044daac6dd0b 100644
--- a/ext/simplexml/simplexml.c
+++ b/ext/simplexml/simplexml.c
@@ -1322,7 +1322,7 @@ PHP_METHOD(SimpleXMLElement, xpath)
 
 		for (i = 0; i < result->nodeNr; ++i) {
 			nodeptr = result->nodeTab[i];
-			if (nodeptr->type == XML_TEXT_NODE || nodeptr->type == XML_ELEMENT_NODE || nodeptr->type == XML_ATTRIBUTE_NODE || nodeptr->type == XML_PI_NODE) {
+			if (nodeptr->type == XML_TEXT_NODE || nodeptr->type == XML_ELEMENT_NODE || nodeptr->type == XML_ATTRIBUTE_NODE || nodeptr->type == XML_PI_NODE || nodeptr->type == XML_COMMENT_NODE) {
 				/**
 				 * Detect the case where the last selector is text(), simplexml
 				 * always accesses the text() child by default, therefore we assign
diff --git a/ext/simplexml/tests/bug12170.phpt b/ext/simplexml/tests/bug12170.phpt
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..c1535fe7640f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ext/simplexml/tests/bug12170.phpt
@@ -0,0 +1,52 @@
+--TEST--
+Bug GH-12170 (Can't use xpath with comments in SimpleXML)
+--EXTENSIONS--
+simplexml
+--FILE--
+<?php
+
+$xml = <<<XML
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
+<foo>
+  <bar>text node</bar>
+  <bar><!-- baz --></bar>
+  <bar><!-- foo --></bar>
+</foo>
+XML;
+
+$sxe = simplexml_load_string($xml);
+
+var_dump(
+    $sxe->xpath('//bar')
+);
+
+foreach ($sxe->xpath('//comment()') as $comment) {
+    var_dump($comment->getName());
+    var_dump($comment->asXML());
+}
+
+?>
+--EXPECT--
+array(3) {
+  [0]=>
+  object(SimpleXMLElement)#2 (1) {
+    [0]=>
+    string(9) "text node"
+  }
+  [1]=>
+  object(SimpleXMLElement)#3 (1) {
+    ["comment"]=>
+    object(SimpleXMLElement)#5 (0) {
+    }
+  }
+  [2]=>
+  object(SimpleXMLElement)#4 (1) {
+    ["comment"]=>
+    object(SimpleXMLElement)#5 (0) {
+    }
+  }
+}
+string(7) "comment"
+string(12) "<!-- baz -->"
+string(7) "comment"
+string(12) "<!-- foo -->"