<hibernate-configuration>

        <session-factory>

            <!-- Database connection settings -->
            <property name = "hbm2ddl.auto">create</property>
            <property name = "dialect">org.hibernate.dialect.MySQLDialect</property>
            <property name = "connection.url">jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/hibernate_test"</property>
            <property name = "connection.username">root</property>
            <property name = "connection.password">mysql123</property>
            <property name = "connection.driver_class">com.mysql.jdbc.Driver</property>

            <mapping resource="employee.hbm.xml"/>
        </session-factory>

    </hibernate-configuration>

<hibernate-mapping>
        <class name = "com.somnath.test.Employee" table = "employee_details">
            <id name = "employeeID">
                <generator class ="assigned"></generator>
            </id>
            <property name="firstName"></property>
            <property name="lastName"></property>
        </class>
    </hibernate-mapping>

Caused by: com.mysql.jdbc.exceptions.jdbc4.MySQLSyntaxErrorException: Unknown database 'hibernate_test"'