diff --git a/CHANGELOG.adoc b/CHANGELOG.adoc
index 33bad74712..d88823136e 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.adoc
+++ b/CHANGELOG.adoc
@@ -69,6 +69,7 @@ Improvements::
 
 Bug Fixes::
 
+  * Catalog inline ref defined using anchor macro even when resolved reftext is empty
   * Use while loop rather than recursion to locate next line to process; prevents stack limit error (#4368)
   * Avoid numeric character reference when looking for fragment in target of xref (#4393, #3642)
   * Use correct selector to collapse margin on first and last child of sidebar
diff --git a/lib/asciidoctor/parser.rb b/lib/asciidoctor/parser.rb
index 2f901818a4..e62a2324be 100644
--- a/lib/asciidoctor/parser.rb
+++ b/lib/asciidoctor/parser.rb
@@ -1166,7 +1166,7 @@ def self.catalog_inline_anchors text, block, document, reader
             reftext = reftext.gsub '\]', ']'
             reftext = document.sub_attributes reftext if reftext.include? ATTR_REF_HEAD
           elsif reftext.include? ATTR_REF_HEAD
-            next if (reftext = document.sub_attributes reftext).empty?
+            reftext = nil if (reftext = document.sub_attributes reftext).empty?
           end
         end
       end
diff --git a/test/links_test.rb b/test/links_test.rb
index 745813eb1b..4ef23cbcb4 100644
--- a/test/links_test.rb
+++ b/test/links_test.rb
@@ -396,6 +396,16 @@
     assert_includes output, (input.sub '{empty}', '')
   end
 
+  test 'reftext of macro inline ref can resolve to empty' do
+    input = 'anchor:id-only[{empty}]text\n\nsee <<id-only>>'
+    doc = document_from_string input
+    assert doc.catalog[:refs].key? 'id-only'
+    output = doc.convert standalone: false
+    assert_xpath '//a[@id="id-only"]', output, 1
+    assert_xpath '//a[@href="#id-only"]', output, 1
+    assert_xpath '//a[@href="#id-only"][text()="[id-only]"]', output, 1
+  end
+
   test 'inline ref with reftext' do
     %w([[tigers,Tigers]] anchor:tigers[Tigers]).each do |anchor|
       doc = document_from_string %(Here you can read about tigers.#{anchor})