The driver of the car was killed in the attack and many vehicles were damaged.
"One person was martyred" and "eight people were wounded, some seriously, when a car carrying tribesmen from Maarib province on their way from Saada to Dahyan, exploded," rebel spokesman Mohammed Abdulsalam said by telephone.
He said that the attack on the convoy headed to the funeral venue near the Saudi border from the rebel stronghold of Saada was the work of a suicide bomber.
Tribal sources confirmed the mourners had been hit by a suicide bombing on their way to Dahyan.
Despite tight security, the suicide bomber managed to drive into a convoy of about 30 cars of Maarib tribes that attended the funeral of Badruddin Al-Houthi who died on Thursday. Badruddin Al-Houthi is the father of Abdul Malek Al-Houthi, a field commander of the rebel group, and a prominent Zaidi figure.
The car bomb attack is the second in less than a week that targeted Shiite affiliates processions in the stronghold of Houthi rebels in northern Yemen. On Wednesday, a car bomb stuck a similar convoy killing at least 17 people and injuring dozens of people who were due to attend major Shiite festivities in neighboring Al-Jawf province. It is not yet known who carried out the two attacks.
Following Friday's attack, the rebels searched all cars coming into Saada, witnesses told AFP.
"In a terrorist incident," a bomb-laden car attacked a "convoy from Maarib province which was coming to participate in the funeral of the scholar Badruddin Al-Houthi," the rebels said on their website.
Abdulsalam accused the United States and Israel of being behind "what is called the Al-Qaeda network."
Badruddin Al-Houthi had long suffered from asthma, the rebel spokesman said.
A tribal chief has blamed Al-Qaeda for Wednesday's bombing, which he has said was aimed at stoking sectarian tensions.
The latest round of fighting between the Zaidi rebels and the government culminated in a Qatari-brokered truce in February but it has repeatedly been challenged by clashes between the rebels and pro-government tribes.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees says more than 300,000 people have fled the fighting in the north, of whom just 20,000 have so far returned to homes in Saada province.
(With input from agencies)