ANEARfilewillhaveaMETA-INFdirectoryinwhichtherewillbetheapplication.xmlfile.Theejb-jar.xmldescriptorisintheMETA-INFdirectoryoftheEJBjarfile.

i.e. 
SimpleBean.ear/
--------------SimpleBean.jar
--------------META-INF/
-----------------------application.xml

Where did the ear file come from? WebLogic allows you to deploy just an EJB
JARfile but the RI requires it to be within an EAR, and you can't have an
EAR without an application.xml.