Why a Pic won't appear when clipped to a gradient

I have a layer that uses a gradient in the Blending Options. I then want to clip another layer to it but it does not appear at all? Though, it will appear if I just have a solid color and not a gradient. What’s up with this? I’m on Photoshop CS2

quite frankly, i’m not sure what the difference is.

hopefully you can see this;

the background layer has a gradient.the top layer is a stock photo that I want clipped to it.

What do you mean by “clip another layer to it”? Creating a clipping mask? Adding a layer mask or vector mask?