diff --git a/asterixdb/asterix-app/src/test/resources/runtimets/queries_sqlpp/string/string-literal1/string-literal1.1.query.sqlpp b/asterixdb/asterix-app/src/test/resources/runtimets/queries_sqlpp/string/string-literal1/string-literal1.1.query.sqlpp
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6c0c952
--- /dev/null
+++ b/asterixdb/asterix-app/src/test/resources/runtimets/queries_sqlpp/string/string-literal1/string-literal1.1.query.sqlpp
@@ -0,0 +1,35 @@
+/*
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+ * or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+ * distributed with this work for additional information
+ * regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+ * to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+ * "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+ * with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *   http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
+ * software distributed under the License is distributed on an
+ * "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
+ * KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
+ * specific language governing permissions and limitations
+ * under the License.
+ */
+
+with strings as  [
+  'xs0',
+  'xs1''ys1',
+  'xs2''ys2''zs2',
+  E'xs3',
+
+  "xd0",
+  "xd1""yd1",
+  "xd2""yd2""zd2",
+  E"xd3"
+]
+
+select i, s
+from range(0, len(strings)-1) i
+let s = strings[i]
+order by i;
diff --git a/asterixdb/asterix-app/src/test/resources/runtimets/results/string/string-literal1/string-literal1.1.adm b/asterixdb/asterix-app/src/test/resources/runtimets/results/string/string-literal1/string-literal1.1.adm
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1804cf8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/asterixdb/asterix-app/src/test/resources/runtimets/results/string/string-literal1/string-literal1.1.adm
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+{ "i": 0, "s": "xs0" }
+{ "i": 1, "s": "xs1'ys1" }
+{ "i": 2, "s": "xs2'ys2'zs2" }
+{ "i": 3, "s": "xs3" }
+{ "i": 4, "s": "xd0" }
+{ "i": 5, "s": "xd1\"yd1" }
+{ "i": 6, "s": "xd2\"yd2\"zd2" }
+{ "i": 7, "s": "xd3" }
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/asterixdb/asterix-app/src/test/resources/runtimets/testsuite_sqlpp.xml b/asterixdb/asterix-app/src/test/resources/runtimets/testsuite_sqlpp.xml
index facf00f..d1f19ea 100644
--- a/asterixdb/asterix-app/src/test/resources/runtimets/testsuite_sqlpp.xml
+++ b/asterixdb/asterix-app/src/test/resources/runtimets/testsuite_sqlpp.xml
@@ -10835,6 +10835,11 @@
       </compilation-unit>
     </test-case>
     <test-case FilePath="string">
+      <compilation-unit name="string-literal1">
+        <output-dir compare="Text">string-literal1</output-dir>
+      </compilation-unit>
+    </test-case>
+    <test-case FilePath="string">
       <compilation-unit name="string-to-codepoint">
         <output-dir compare="Text">string-to-codepoint</output-dir>
       </compilation-unit>
diff --git a/asterixdb/asterix-lang-sqlpp/src/main/javacc/SQLPP.jj b/asterixdb/asterix-lang-sqlpp/src/main/javacc/SQLPP.jj
index 969d579..facdfa7 100644
--- a/asterixdb/asterix-lang-sqlpp/src/main/javacc/SQLPP.jj
+++ b/asterixdb/asterix-lang-sqlpp/src/main/javacc/SQLPP.jj
@@ -3157,12 +3157,48 @@
 
 String StringLiteral() throws ParseException:
 {
+  StringBuilder str = null;
+  char quote = 0;
+  boolean ext = false;
+  Token litToken = null;
+  String lit = null;
 }
 {
-  <STRING_LITERAL>
+  ( <STRING_LITERAL>
     {
-      return removeQuotesAndEscapes(token.image);
+      String quoted = token.image;
+      char q = quoted.charAt(0);
+      boolean e = q == 'E';
+      if (e) {
+        q = quoted.charAt(1);
+        quoted = quoted.substring(1);
+      }
+      if (lit == null) {
+        quote = q;
+        ext = e;
+      } else {
+        boolean isAdjacent = litToken.endLine == token.beginLine && litToken.endColumn + 1 == token.beginColumn;
+        if (!isAdjacent || ext || e || (q != quote)) {
+          throw new SqlppParseException(getSourceLocation(token), "Invalid string literal");
+        }
+        if (str == null) {
+          str = new StringBuilder();
+        }
+        str.append(lit);
+        str.append(quote);
+      }
+      lit = removeQuotesAndEscapes(quoted);
+      litToken = token;
     }
+  )+
+  {
+    if (str == null) {
+      return lit;
+    } else {
+      str.append(lit);
+      return str.toString();
+    }
+  }
 }
 
 Triple<List<String>, Token, Token> MultipartIdentifier() throws ParseException:
@@ -5472,7 +5508,7 @@
         | <EscapeCr>
         | <EscapeTab>
         | ~["`","\\"])* "`">
-  | <STRING_LITERAL : ("\"" (
+  | <STRING_LITERAL : ( ("E")? "\"" (
           <EscapeQuot>
         | <EscapeBslash>
         | <EscapeSlash>
@@ -5482,7 +5518,7 @@
         | <EscapeCr>
         | <EscapeTab>
         | ~["\"","\\"])* "\"")
-      | ("\'"(
+      | ( ("E")? "\'" (
           <EscapeApos>
         | <EscapeBslash>
         | <EscapeSlash>
diff --git a/asterixdb/asterix-lang-sqlpp/src/test/java/org/apache/asterix/lang/sqlpp/parser/ParserTest.java b/asterixdb/asterix-lang-sqlpp/src/test/java/org/apache/asterix/lang/sqlpp/parser/ParserTest.java
index 5b7ef16..8413c38 100644
--- a/asterixdb/asterix-lang-sqlpp/src/test/java/org/apache/asterix/lang/sqlpp/parser/ParserTest.java
+++ b/asterixdb/asterix-lang-sqlpp/src/test/java/org/apache/asterix/lang/sqlpp/parser/ParserTest.java
@@ -19,8 +19,12 @@
 package org.apache.asterix.lang.sqlpp.parser;
 
 import org.apache.asterix.common.exceptions.CompilationException;
+import org.apache.asterix.lang.common.base.Expression;
 import org.apache.asterix.lang.common.base.IParser;
 import org.apache.asterix.lang.common.base.IParserFactory;
+import org.apache.asterix.lang.common.base.Literal;
+import org.apache.asterix.lang.common.expression.LiteralExpr;
+import org.junit.Assert;
 import org.junit.Test;
 
 public class ParserTest {
@@ -105,4 +109,87 @@
         parser = factory.createParser(query);
         parser.parse();
     }
+
+    @Test
+    public void testStringLiterals() {
+        // test different quote combinations
+        String v1 = "a1";
+        String[] prefixes = new String[] { "", "E" };
+        String[] quotes = new String[] { "'", "\"" };
+
+        IParserFactory factory = new SqlppParserFactory();
+        StringBuilder qb = new StringBuilder();
+
+        for (String p : prefixes) {
+            for (String q1 : quotes) {
+                for (String q2 : quotes) {
+                    qb.setLength(0);
+                    qb.append(p).append(q1).append(v1).append(q2).append(';');
+
+                    boolean expectSuccess = q1.equals(q2);
+                    String expectedValue = expectSuccess ? v1 : "Lexical error";
+                    testParseStringLiteral(qb.toString(), expectSuccess, expectedValue, factory);
+                }
+            }
+        }
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    public void testStringLiteralsMulti() {
+        // test different quote combinations
+        String v1 = "a1", v2 = "b2", v3 = "c3";
+        String[] prefixesStart = new String[] { "", "E" };
+        String[] prefixesRest = new String[] { "", "E", " ", "\n" };
+        String[] quotes = new String[] { "'", "\"" };
+
+        IParserFactory factory = new SqlppParserFactory();
+        StringBuilder qb = new StringBuilder();
+        for (String p1 : prefixesStart) {
+            for (String q1 : quotes) {
+                for (String p2 : prefixesRest) {
+                    for (String q2 : quotes) {
+                        for (String p3 : prefixesRest) {
+                            for (String q3 : quotes) {
+                                qb.setLength(0);
+                                qb.append(p1).append(q1).append(v1).append(q1);
+                                qb.append(p2).append(q2).append(v2).append(q2);
+                                qb.append(p3).append(q3).append(v3).append(q3);
+                                qb.append(';');
+
+                                boolean expectSuccess =
+                                        p1.isEmpty() && p2.isEmpty() && p3.isEmpty() && q1.equals(q2) && q1.equals(q3);
+                                String expectedValue =
+                                        expectSuccess ? v1 + q1 + v2 + q1 + v3 : "Invalid string literal";
+                                testParseStringLiteral(qb.toString(), expectSuccess, expectedValue, factory);
+                            }
+                        }
+                    }
+                }
+            }
+        }
+    }
+
+    private void testParseStringLiteral(String query, boolean expectSuccess, String expectedValueOrError,
+            IParserFactory factory) {
+        try {
+            IParser parser = factory.createParser(query);
+            Expression expr = parser.parseExpression();
+            if (!expectSuccess) {
+                Assert.fail("Unexpected parsing success for: " + query);
+            }
+            Assert.assertEquals(Expression.Kind.LITERAL_EXPRESSION, expr.getKind());
+            LiteralExpr litExpr = (LiteralExpr) expr;
+            Literal lit = litExpr.getValue();
+            Assert.assertEquals(Literal.Type.STRING, lit.getLiteralType());
+            String value = lit.getStringValue();
+            Assert.assertEquals(expectedValueOrError, value);
+        } catch (CompilationException e) {
+            if (expectSuccess) {
+                Assert.fail("Unexpected parsing failure for: " + query + " : " + e);
+            } else {
+                Assert.assertTrue(e.getMessage() + " does not contain: " + expectedValueOrError,
+                        e.getMessage().contains(expectedValueOrError));
+            }
+        }
+    }
 }