diff --git a/x-pack/plugin/ml/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/mapper/SemanticTextFieldMapper.java b/x-pack/plugin/ml/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/mapper/SemanticTextFieldMapper.java
index 87df6559426f6..83c81ebd0e0cf 100644
--- a/x-pack/plugin/ml/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/mapper/SemanticTextFieldMapper.java
+++ b/x-pack/plugin/ml/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/mapper/SemanticTextFieldMapper.java
@@ -7,7 +7,13 @@
 
 package org.elasticsearch.xpack.ml.mapper;
 
+import org.apache.lucene.document.FeatureField;
+import org.apache.lucene.search.BooleanClause;
+import org.apache.lucene.search.BooleanQuery;
 import org.apache.lucene.search.Query;
+import org.apache.lucene.search.join.ScoreMode;
+import org.apache.lucene.util.BytesRef;
+import org.elasticsearch.common.lucene.search.Queries;
 import org.elasticsearch.index.mapper.DocumentParserContext;
 import org.elasticsearch.index.mapper.FieldMapper;
 import org.elasticsearch.index.mapper.MappedFieldType;
@@ -18,6 +24,8 @@
 import org.elasticsearch.index.mapper.ValueFetcher;
 import org.elasticsearch.index.mapper.vectors.SparseVectorFieldMapper;
 import org.elasticsearch.index.query.SearchExecutionContext;
+import org.elasticsearch.index.search.ESToParentBlockJoinQuery;
+import org.elasticsearch.xpack.core.ml.inference.results.TextExpansionResults;
 
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.util.Map;
@@ -27,7 +35,6 @@ public class SemanticTextFieldMapper extends FieldMapper {
 
     public static final String CONTENT_TYPE = "semantic_text";
 
-
     private static SemanticTextFieldMapper toType(FieldMapper in) {
         return (SemanticTextFieldMapper) in;
     }
@@ -57,10 +64,6 @@ protected Parameter<?>[] getParameters() {
             return new Parameter<?>[] { modelId, meta };
         }
 
-        private SemanticTextFieldType buildFieldType(MapperBuilderContext context) {
-            return new SemanticTextFieldType(context.buildFullName(name), modelId.getValue(), meta.getValue());
-        }
-
         @Override
         public SemanticTextFieldMapper build(MapperBuilderContext context) {
             return new SemanticTextFieldMapper(
@@ -107,6 +110,29 @@ public Query termQuery(Object value, SearchExecutionContext context) {
             return sparseVectorFieldType.termQuery(value, context);
         }
 
+        public Query textExpansionQuery(TextExpansionResults expansionResults, SearchExecutionContext context) {
+            String fieldName = name() + "." + "inference";
+            BooleanQuery.Builder queryBuilder = new BooleanQuery.Builder();
+            for (var weightedToken : expansionResults.getWeightedTokens()) {
+                queryBuilder.add(
+                    new BooleanClause(
+                        FeatureField.newLinearQuery(fieldName, indexedValueForSearch(weightedToken.token()), weightedToken.weight()),
+                        BooleanClause.Occur.SHOULD
+                    )
+                );
+            }
+            queryBuilder.setMinimumNumberShouldMatch(1);
+            var parentFilter = context.bitsetFilter(Queries.newNonNestedFilter(context.indexVersionCreated()));
+            return new ESToParentBlockJoinQuery(queryBuilder.build(), parentFilter, ScoreMode.Total, name());
+        }
+
+        private static String indexedValueForSearch(Object value) {
+            if (value instanceof BytesRef) {
+                return ((BytesRef) value).utf8ToString();
+            }
+            return value.toString();
+        }
+
         @Override
         public ValueFetcher valueFetcher(SearchExecutionContext context, String format) {
             return SourceValueFetcher.identity(name(), context, format);
diff --git a/x-pack/plugin/inference/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/inference/queries/SemanticQueryBuilder.java b/x-pack/plugin/ml/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/queries/SemanticQueryBuilder.java
similarity index 89%
rename from x-pack/plugin/inference/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/inference/queries/SemanticQueryBuilder.java
rename to x-pack/plugin/ml/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/queries/SemanticQueryBuilder.java
index 6833bcb780363..f85f68e657699 100644
--- a/x-pack/plugin/inference/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/inference/queries/SemanticQueryBuilder.java
+++ b/x-pack/plugin/ml/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/queries/SemanticQueryBuilder.java
@@ -5,10 +5,9 @@
  * 2.0.
  */
 
-package org.elasticsearch.xpack.inference.queries;
+package org.elasticsearch.xpack.ml.queries;
 
 import org.apache.lucene.search.Query;
-import org.apache.lucene.search.join.ScoreMode;
 import org.apache.lucene.util.SetOnce;
 import org.elasticsearch.TransportVersion;
 import org.elasticsearch.TransportVersions;
@@ -16,20 +15,19 @@
 import org.elasticsearch.common.ParsingException;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.io.stream.StreamInput;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.io.stream.StreamOutput;
-import org.elasticsearch.common.lucene.search.Queries;
 import org.elasticsearch.index.query.AbstractQueryBuilder;
 import org.elasticsearch.index.query.QueryBuilder;
 import org.elasticsearch.index.query.QueryBuilders;
 import org.elasticsearch.index.query.QueryRewriteContext;
 import org.elasticsearch.index.query.SearchExecutionContext;
-import org.elasticsearch.index.search.ESToParentBlockJoinQuery;
 import org.elasticsearch.inference.InferenceResults;
 import org.elasticsearch.inference.TaskType;
 import org.elasticsearch.xcontent.ParseField;
 import org.elasticsearch.xcontent.XContentBuilder;
 import org.elasticsearch.xcontent.XContentParser;
+import org.elasticsearch.xpack.core.inference.action.InferenceAction;
 import org.elasticsearch.xpack.core.ml.inference.results.TextExpansionResults;
-import org.elasticsearch.xpack.inference.action.InferenceAction;
+import org.elasticsearch.xpack.ml.mapper.SemanticTextFieldMapper;
 
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.util.List;
@@ -46,7 +44,6 @@ public class SemanticQueryBuilder extends AbstractQueryBuilder<SemanticQueryBuil
 
     private final String fieldName;
     private final String query;
-    private QueryBuilder innerQueryBuilder;
 
     private static final ParseField QUERY_FIELD = new ParseField("query");
 
@@ -67,14 +64,12 @@ public SemanticQueryBuilder(SemanticQueryBuilder other, SetOnce<List<? extends I
         this.fieldName = other.fieldName;
         this.query = other.query;
         this.inferenceResultsSupplier = inferenceResultsSupplier;
-        this.innerQueryBuilder = other.innerQueryBuilder;
     }
 
     public SemanticQueryBuilder(SemanticQueryBuilder other, QueryBuilder innerQueryBuilder) {
         this.fieldName = other.fieldName;
         this.query = other.query;
         this.inferenceResultsSupplier = other.inferenceResultsSupplier;
-        this.innerQueryBuilder = innerQueryBuilder;
     }
 
     public SemanticQueryBuilder(StreamInput in) throws IOException {
@@ -86,13 +81,6 @@ public SemanticQueryBuilder(StreamInput in) throws IOException {
     @Override
     protected QueryBuilder doRewrite(QueryRewriteContext queryRewriteContext) throws IOException {
         if (inferenceResultsSupplier != null) {
-            if (inferenceResultsSupplier.get() == null) {
-                // Inference still not returned
-                return this;
-            }
-            if (innerQueryBuilder == null) {
-                return inferenceResultsToQuery(fieldName, inferenceResultsSupplier.get());
-            }
             return this;
         }
 
@@ -152,8 +140,25 @@ private QueryBuilder inferenceResultsToQuery(String fieldName, List<? extends In
     }
 
     protected Query doToQuery(SearchExecutionContext context) throws IOException {
-        var parentFilter = context.bitsetFilter(Queries.newNonNestedFilter(context.indexVersionCreated()));
-        return new ESToParentBlockJoinQuery(innerQueryBuilder.toQuery(context), parentFilter, ScoreMode.Total, fieldName);
+        List<? extends InferenceResults> inferenceResultsList = inferenceResultsSupplier.get();
+        if (inferenceResultsList == null) {
+            throw new IllegalArgumentException("No inference retrieved for field " + fieldName);
+        }
+        if (inferenceResultsList.size() != 1) {
+            throw new IllegalArgumentException("received multiple inference results for field " + fieldName);
+        }
+
+        InferenceResults inferenceResults = inferenceResultsList.get(0);
+        if (inferenceResults instanceof TextExpansionResults expansionResults) {
+            SemanticTextFieldMapper.SemanticTextFieldType mapper = (SemanticTextFieldMapper.SemanticTextFieldType) context.getFieldType(
+                fieldName
+            );
+            return mapper.textExpansionQuery(expansionResults, context);
+        }
+
+        throw new IllegalArgumentException(
+            "field [" + fieldName + "] does not use a model that outputs sparse vector inference results"
+        );
     }
 
     @Override