> All I actually have is
> 
> for the navLabel node,
> <xsl:variable name= 'navLabelNodeID'
> select='generate-id(document(content/@src)/text/@src)'/>
> for the navPoint node,
> <xsl:variable name='navPointNode'
> select='document(id(@mapRef)/content[1]/@src)'/>
>
>
> both point into the same document,

I don't understand this at all.
that sets the two variables to be essentially random strings.
I'm not sure what you mean by points to the same document, do you mean 
content/@src and id(@mapRef) always have the same string value?

So ignoring all that for a bt and going back to the original question,

> is (or is not) a direct descendant of another node (e.g. level2[id='l2'])
> or if there are intervening levelX elements.

if $x is an element  node and $y is another element node then 

count($x/*|$y) = count($x/*)

just if $y is a child of $x which is what I think you mean by direct
descendant.

count($x//*|$y) = count($x/*)

if $y is a descendent of $x


David

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