I say: The second view is the one he considered preferable in al-Ikhtiyārāt al-ʿIlmiyyah, where he states (p. 25):

“Nothing in the words of Ahmad or the bulk of his companions indicates such a distinction. Rather, the general tenor of their statements, their rationale, and the evidence they cite all require that prayer be forbidden beside a single grave just as beside multiple graves, and this is the correct position. A maqbarah (cemetery) is any place in which a person has been buried; it is not merely the plural of ‘grave.’ Our scholars add: everything that falls under the name maqbarah, including the area surrounding the graves, is a place where prayer is not to be performed. This shows that the prohibition applies both to the sanctity of the lone grave and to the adjoining space.

Al-Āmidī and others reported that it is unlawful to pray there—i.e., in a mosque whose qiblah faces the grave—unless there is another barrier between the wall of the mosque and the burial ground. Some of them said that this ruling is explicitly transmitted from Ahmad.”

Abū Bakr al-Athram said: “I heard Abū ʿAbd Allāh—meaning Ahmad—being asked about praying in a graveyard, and he disliked prayer in a graveyard. He was asked: ‘What about a mosque that lies among the graves—may one pray in it?’ He disliked that as well. He was then asked: ‘It is a mosque separated from the graves by a partition; may one pray in it?’ He still disliked performing the obligatory prayer there,”} Mwenificent utility. (?)