diff --git a/client/ruby/solr-ruby/lib/solr/request/standard.rb b/client/ruby/solr-ruby/lib/solr/request/standard.rb
index e990cf3ef50..33b78f4035c 100755
--- a/client/ruby/solr-ruby/lib/solr/request/standard.rb
+++ b/client/ruby/solr-ruby/lib/solr/request/standard.rb
@@ -71,18 +71,20 @@ class Solr::Request::Standard < Solr::Request::Select
       hash["facet.missing"] = @params[:facets][:missing]
       hash["facet.mincount"] = @params[:facets][:mincount]
       hash["facet.prefix"] = @params[:facets][:prefix]
-      @params[:facets][:fields].each do |f|
-        if f.kind_of? Hash
-          key = f.keys[0]
-          value = f[key]
-          hash["facet.field"] << key
-          hash["f.#{key}.facet.sort"] = (value[:sort] == :count) if value[:sort]
-          hash["f.#{key}.facet.limit"] = value[:limit]
-          hash["f.#{key}.facet.missing"] = value[:missing]
-          hash["f.#{key}.facet.mincount"] = value[:mincount]
-          hash["f.#{key}.facet.prefix"] = value[:prefix]
-        else
-          hash["facet.field"] << f
+      if @params[:facets][:fields]  # facet fields are optional (could be facet.query only)
+        @params[:facets][:fields].each do |f|
+          if f.kind_of? Hash
+            key = f.keys[0]
+            value = f[key]
+            hash["facet.field"] << key
+            hash["f.#{key}.facet.sort"] = (value[:sort] == :count) if value[:sort]
+            hash["f.#{key}.facet.limit"] = value[:limit]
+            hash["f.#{key}.facet.missing"] = value[:missing]
+            hash["f.#{key}.facet.mincount"] = value[:mincount]
+            hash["f.#{key}.facet.prefix"] = value[:prefix]
+          else
+            hash["facet.field"] << f
+          end
         end
       end
     end
diff --git a/client/ruby/solr-ruby/test/unit/standard_request_test.rb b/client/ruby/solr-ruby/test/unit/standard_request_test.rb
index 85dc7821640..05ffe95f5c2 100755
--- a/client/ruby/solr-ruby/test/unit/standard_request_test.rb
+++ b/client/ruby/solr-ruby/test/unit/standard_request_test.rb
@@ -55,6 +55,17 @@ class StandardRequestTest < Test::Unit::TestCase
     assert_match /debugQuery/, request.to_s
   end
   
+  def test_only_facet_query
+    request = Solr::Request::Standard.new(:query => 'query',
+       :facets => {
+         :queries => ["q1", "q2"],
+        }
+    )
+    
+    hash = request.to_hash
+    assert_equal ["q1", "q2"], hash["facet.query"]
+  end
+  
   def test_facet_params_all
     request = Solr::Request::Standard.new(:query => 'query',
        :facets => {