glad you tried with WITH

I tried you example in a slightly different way. The user thing was too much effort!

WITH
  Moo
AS
  (
   SELECT 5 A, 0 B FROM Dual UNION ALL
   SELECT 6 A, 1 B FROM Dual UNION ALL
   SELECT 4 A, 2 B FROM Dual UNION ALL
   SELECT 7 A, 3 B FROM Dual UNION ALL
   SELECT 3 A, 4 B FROM Dual UNION ALL
   SELECT 8 A, 5 B FROM Dual UNION ALL
   SELECT 2 A, 6 B FROM Dual UNION ALL
   SELECT 9 A, 7 B FROM Dual UNION ALL
   SELECT 1 A, 8 B FROM Dual UNION ALL
   SELECT 0 A, 9 B FROM Dual
  ),
  Cow
AS
  (
   SELECT
    A
   FROM
    Moo
   ORDER BY
    B
  )
SELECT
  R,
  A
FROM
  (
   SELECT
    RowNum R,
    A
   FROM
    Cow
   ORDER BY
    Rownum DESC
  )
WHERE
  Rownum< 4
ORDER BY
  R;