YOu don’t sound stupid at all. It gets very confusing when even the apple mail app has different options for each mail provider.....I have yahoo and hotmail and I have different set up options for each one.
When you say using the mailthat came with safari, do you mean the mail app that is bundled on your iPad (as in you went into the settings and added your gmail info ot access the mail), or do you use safari to go to gmail.com to get your mail, or do you use the gmail app...as in there’s a gmail icon that you tap on to get your mail.