Here: https://docs.jboss.org/hibernate/orm/4.3/manual/en-US/html_single/#mapping-declaration-class

name (optional): the fully qualified Java class name of the persistent class or interface. If this attribute is missing, it is assumed that the mapping is for a non-POJO entity.

That states that I can use class or interface when using

<class name="com.myentity.MyInterface">

What I can say is that it works without any issue in hibernate 4.3.